American Breezy Johnson wins downhill gold, Lindsey Vonn airlifted off course after crash

On a Sunday morning filled with all kinds of emotion, American Breezy Johnson won the women’s Olympic downhill race in Cortina. It was the first gold medal of Johnson’s career and the first awarded to the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

With the victory, the 30-year-old added another piece of hardware to her rapidly expanding collection. She was a double world champion in 2025, securing gold in the downhill and team combined — alongside Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) — in Salbaach, Austria.

Johnson’s triumph in Cortina officially closed the loop on her full-circle moment. Just weeks before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, she crashed in a training run and injured her knee, which forced her to miss the Games. The place that took her out? The Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina.

Four years later, on the same course, Johnson became only the second American woman in Alpine skiing history to win Olympic downhill gold. The first was Lindsey Vonn at the Vancouver Games in 2010.