U.S. Olympic skier and Jackson, Wyoming, native Breezy Johnson, won the United States’ first gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics in women’s downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Johnson became the second U.S woman to win the gold in the downhill, following Lindsey Vonn’s gold medal run in 2010.

Johnson was raised in Victor until she attended the Rowmark Ski Academy in Salt Lake City for high school. She learned to ski at age 3 on the western slope of Teton Pass, taught by her father, with her biggest early rival being her older brother, Finn, according to the Team USA website.

In 2015, she began competing in the World Cup circuit. In 2017, she crashed at the World Cup finals in Aspen and suffered a tibial plateau fracture to her left leg. While training in Chile in September 2018, she partially tore her right ACL and missed the entire 2019 season. She was also unable to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympics in China due to an injury suffered earlier that year on this same course in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

She earned a slot on the U.S team this year following a dominant performance at the FIS 2025 Alpine World Championships in Austria, earning gold medals in that event for downhill and team combined. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, Johnson’s first Olympic appearance, she placed 7th.

This year, Johnson edged out silver medalist Emma Aicher of Germany by a thin margin of 0.04 seconds and watched from the bottom of the hill as teammate Lindsey Vonn crashed 13 seconds into her run and had to be airlifted from the course.

After the medal ceremony, Johnson’s personal celebration was exuberant which caused the ribbon attached to her gold medal to break. The medal hit the ground and broke into three pieces.

“Don’t jump with them,” Johnson advised. “I’m sure someone will fix it — it’s not crazy broken, but a little broken.”

Off the slopes, Johnson is deeply involved with Coombs Outdoors, working to help underprivileged kids get into skiing and sports in hopes of diversifying ski racing. She also supports Protect Our Winters in efforts to preserve winter sports for future generations.