MILAN — An American pumped her fist and waved to the crowd after skiing across the finish line with the fastest time in the women’s downhill. It just wasn’t the one who has received endless media coverage over the past week for bravely trying to compete on one good leg.
Breezy Johnson won Olympic gold on Sunday, attacking so fearlessly that she managed to overcome getting off her line on a series of turns in the middle of the course. Johnson’s winning margin over second-place Emma Aicher of Germany was just four-hundredths of a second — 1:36.10 to 1:36.14 — less time than the snap of the fingers or the blink of an eye. Italy’s Sofia Goggia took bronze.
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Johnson joins Lindsey Vonn as the only Americans to ever win gold in women’s Olympic downhill.
“I had a good feeling about today,” she said. “I sort of still can’t believe it yet, so I don’t know when it will sink in yet. I’ll let you know.”
But what should have been a moment of jubilation for Johnson turned bittersweet when Vonn’s bid for Olympic glory went horribly wrong. Vonn, 41 years old and famously skiing on a torn ACL suffered just nine days earlier, nicked a gate with her right pole a few seconds into her run, got off balance and crashed in a twisted heap.
As Vonn was crying out in pain on the snow while medical officials rushed to help her, Johnson shook her head in apparent disbelief and buried her face in her right hand. When TV cameras flashed to Johnson later in the competition, she remained subdued, even as it became clear the gold medal was hers.
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“My heart goes out to her,” Johnson said later when asked about Vonn. “I hope it’s not as bad as it looked.”
By the start of the medal ceremony, however, Johnson appeared more emotionally ready to celebrate what she had achieved. She raised both arms in the air as she climbed atop the podium and later gleefully pointed at the gold medal around her neck.
For Johnson, Olympic gold is the product of a turbulent journey wrought with difficult moments and overwhelming successes. Johnson, 30, has long been heralded as the next in line behind Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, but there have been times when it appeared she might not be able to live up to that heir apparent status.
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Johnson had to watch the Beijing Olympics from afar four years ago because of injuries that she sustained in a devastating crash during a training run in Cortina, site of Sunday’s downhill, of all places. Before that, she had been skiing as fast as any downhill racer in the world and appeared to be in position to contend for a medal.
Breezy Johnson of United States celebrates with her coaches and team after winning the women’s downhill, as she sits on their shoulders. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
(REUTERS / REUTERS)
Worse yet, Johnson was suspended for the entire 2023-24 season as a result of what the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called a whereabouts violation. Athletes are required to register their whereabouts so that anti-doping officials can test them at any time, but Johnson missed three tests — in error, she has claimed.
Since she has returned to action, Johnson has increasingly looked like the old Breezy, the one expected to be atop medal podiums. She is the reigning world champion in the women’s downhill and said she arrived at these Olympics feeling “as healthy as I’ve been since I got injured before the last Olympics.”
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It showed.
Since she was the sixth skier down the mountain, Johnson had to wait to see if her leading time would hold up for 30 more racers. TV cameras caught her exhaling theatrically in relief after Aicher had a couple of slight bobbles at the bottom of the course that proved to be the difference between gold and silver.
The third American in the women’s downhill, Jacqueline Wiles, finished fourth to narrowly miss out on a medal.
Johnson’s medal is the first for the United States at these Olympics so far.
All week, she has been overshadowed. Even now, she’s still overshadowed, but she’s an Olympic champion.
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