CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Just in case anyone missed it, local skier Breezy Johnson earned the United States its first gold medal of the Olympics over the weekend.
Johnson cruised to victory in downhill skiing just 0.04 seconds ahead of Germany’s Emma Aicher, according to official race results found on the Milano Cortina Olympics website. Italy’s own Sofia Goggia earned bronze 0.59 seconds behind. Johnson’s race time was 1:36.10 on the challenging downhill course at Olympia delle Tofane.
“I gave it my all,” Johnson wrote on Instagram after the race. “And today that was enough. I have held the moments of worst defeat and greatest triumph in the same place. To play the game is to lose, and lose, and then, maybe, on February 8th, to win.”
In January 2022, after qualifying for the Beijing Olympics, Johnson crashed and was injured while skiing at Cortina. She officially withdrew from the Olympic Games that year. The Jackson Hole News&Guide reported that Johnson is the first Jackson Hole native to win an Olympic gold medal. She is the first American woman to win the gold medal for downhill since U.S. teammate Lindsey Vonn won in 2010.
At Sunday’s race, Vonn crashed after her pole hit a gate and spun her out of control just 12.5 seconds into her run. Various media outlets reported the race being delayed for 20 minutes while Vonn received medical attention and was ultimately airlifted to an Italian hospital. This was Vonn’s second big crash in just over a week.
