02/08/26 09:59:00
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02/08 09:57 CST Breezy Johnson's winding road leads to Olympic downhill gold
for US on day marred by Vonn's crash
Breezy Johnson's winding road leads to Olympic downhill gold for US on day
marred by Vonn's crash
By PAT GRAHAM and ANDREW DAMPF
AP Sports Writers
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) --- For Breezy Johnson, the road to an Olympic
gold medal was similar to the winning downhill run she turned in Sunday: It was
full of jarring bumps that nearly knocked her off course, but not off target.
There was the knee injury here in Cortina during a training crash that
ultimately kept the American competing in the 2022 Beijing Games. There was the
14-month ban for violating "whereabouts" rules when it comes to testing for
doping.
She kept a hard-charging attitude and that was on display in Cortina on a day
marred by teammate Lindsey Vonn's crash and trip to a hospital. The 30-year-old
Johnson joins Vonn, 41, as the only American women to win the Olympic downhill.
"People are jealous of people with Olympic gold medals. They're not necessarily
jealous of the journey it took to get those medals," said Johnson, who has
never won a World Cup race. "I don't think my journey is something that many
people are envious of and it's been a tough road, but sometimes you just have
to keep going because that's the only option. If you're going through hell, you
keep walking because you don't want to just sit around in hell."
Johnson finished in 1 minute, 36.10 seconds to hold off Emma Aicher of Germany
by just .04 seconds, securing the first medal for the United States at the
Milan Cortina Games in the process. Italy's Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic
downhill winner and 2022 silver medalist, finished with the bronze.
The tears began welling in the eyes of Johnson as racer after racer couldn't
top her time, wiping them away with a mitten.
Her long-awaited medal? That didn't hold up so well. The clasp holding the
ribbon to the medal broke. She placed the pieces in her pocket.
"It's definitely heavier than I expected," Johnson said of her new hardware. "I
think that's maybe why it broke."
Johnson was just the sixth racer of the day and found speed with a risk-taking
trip along the iconic Olympia delle Tofana course on a sunny day in Cortina.
She felt confident it was good enough for a medal, but not as sure if it would
be gold.
"But I hoped that it would be enough," she said. "I just tried to keep it
rolling. I knew it was fast in some of the places where I made mistakes. I was
like, ?Did I just make a mistake or did I make a mistake because I was going
fast?' That's the line that you're always trying to walk, and today was enough."
She was in the leader's box when Vonn, the No. 13 racer, cut a corner too close
and was spun around before crashing. The race was put on hold for more than 20
minutes.
"I kind of wish the TV directors maybe wouldn't have replayed some of the
crashes as much as they did," Johnson said. "It's a little hard when you're
surrounded by cameras and stuff, not wanting to watch that."
It's certainly been a bumpy road to the top for Johnson, given the knee injury
and a 14-month ban that expired in December 2024. She returned to win the world
championship last February.
Now, she's an Olympic downhill gold medalist. Teammate Jacqueline Wiles
finished just 0.27 seconds away from a medal in a tie for fourth place.
"I think that this was the best run Breezy's ever skied," teammate Bella Wright
said. "There was a lot of expectation, and she rose to the challenge."
Johnson figures to have another shot at gold in the team event and could be
paired with Mikaela Shiffrin.
Vonn's crash put a somber mood over the event. Vonn, who won the downhill at
the 2010 Vancouver Games, was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in
Switzerland last week when she suffered a ruptured ACL for her latest major
knee injury. She returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six
years and after receiving a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee.
"I hope it's not as bad as it looked," Johnson said. "My heart just goes out to
her."
Like Vonn, Cande Moreno of Andorra also was taken away in a helicopter after a
crash in which her left knee appeared to buckle while landing after a jump.
For Aicher, the silver medal pairs with the silver she earned as part of the
team parallel event at the 2022 Games.
"At the third turn I thought, "Oh (crap), what am I doing? Come on, Emma,'" she
recounted. "But I managed to let the skis go pretty well."
Both downhill golds this weekend were won by the reigning world champions after
Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland won the men's race on Saturday. Both races
also featured up-and-coming silver medalists (Aicher, Giovanni Franzoni of
Italy) and Italian veterans in bronze position (Goggia, Dominik Paris).
With her bronze medal, Goggia now has an Olympic downhill medal of every color.
"So-so with my performance, but in the overall I got a medal again," Goggia
said. "It's a privilege."
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Graham contributed from Bormio, Italy.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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