“It’s been a little crazy.”
That’s how Breezy Johnson described having recently won the women’s downhill event and the women’s team combined at the FIS Alpine World Skiing Championships in Saalbach, Austria. To do so, the U.S. national ski team member had to overcome a spate of injuries in recent years including a torn ACL and a 14-month suspension from the sport following three missed drug tests.
Taking the gold medal for the team combined with her childhood friend and the sport’s most accomplished athlete Mikaela Shiffrin heightened that comeback. Reached Friday in Izola, Slovenia, Johnson said she was taking a few days off with her boyfriend, and their next stop would be Venice before returning to the slopes for the second half of the season. The American aims to return to the Winter Olympics in 2026.
Breezy Johnson competes in the downhill leg of Women’s Team Combined during this month’s Audi FIS Alpine World Skiing Championships.
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The 29-year-old said of her momentous week, “It’s been really cool. In some ways, it’s been a long time coming. I’ve been on the precipice of these types of wins and successes many times. It just never perfectly worked out, due to injury, seasons ending or whatever,” she said.
Johnson added, “I knew I had a shot at it last weekend. But I thought, ‘Maybe these things don’t work out for you.’ You just have to ski well and hope that it’s enough to make you happy and know that you gave it your best.”
For Johnson, that could mean reaching speeds of 86 miles per hour in training runs and taking jumps of 40 meters in competition. Her success makes the struggle of overcoming injuries “really worth it,” she said. “But it’s definitely been rough for a while.”
Born in Victor, Wyoming, Johnson grew up racing and competing with Shiffrin in Jackson Hole, starting at the age of 12. That connection reminded her this week of how excited she would have been had she known as a 12-year-old that they could one day be one team. Johnson said, “When you’re young, you have all of these big dreams, but you never imagine the hardships that you will go through. Yes, ‘Little Me’ would have been so excited. But ‘Little Me’ didn’t understand how hard it is. It’s worth more now because you’ve been through so much. You realize how few people do it and why few people do it.”
Breezy Johnson wins the gold medal during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships for the Women’s Team Combined on Feb. 11, 2025 in Saalbach, Austria.
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Before reaching a record-breaking 99 World Cup race wins, Shiffrin has spoken openly about dealing with PTSD after a crash last fall. She also has been criticized in the media after her 2002 Olympic performance. Johnson, a fellow 2022 Olympian, said she wanted to compete with her in the combined “to ease the burden,” and assured her there was no pressure to win. “This was something that I wanted to give to her, because she’s given so much to the sport. She’s helped me since I was a little kid,” Johnson said.
Surprisingly, Johnson does not have an apparel sponsor, but she is keen to collaborate with an outdoor or knitwear brand. An avid knitter, she makes the headbands that she wears in competition, as well hats and scarves. Although she trains and competes in spandex suits, for more casual runs on the mountain, she will wear a Theo jacket and regular pants. Lululemon is one of her favorite brands and ThredUp is a favorite place to shop, said Johnson, who described her style as “fairly athletic-ish.” Traveling to eight or nine mostly European countries each year, Johnson has noticed the wooden soles on Austrian boots and Europeans’ preference for tight-fitting styles. “Even in the U.S., the style in Jackson [Hole, Wyo.] is more about [The] North Face, Spyder and more functional brands. If you go to Vail or Aspen, it’s more about Bogner and Cordova. It varies country to country, but it varies more from resort to resort,” Johnson said.
Speaking of her decision to come out publicly as a bisexual in 2022, Johnson said despite being a private person, she didn’t want young kids to feel they couldn’t be their authentic selves. As for the public debate about gender in sports, Johnson said she has a transgender friend, Jay Riccomini, who competes in Slopestyle for the U.S. ski team as a woman, which is his birth gender. Noting that he does not take hormones, Johnson said she “really struggles” with how he gets misgendered all the time. “That’s unfair and people say things to him like, ‘Why can’t you just be normal?’” she said.
In terms of NCAA sports, Johnson said, “There are a lot bigger problems than transgender athletes in sport. There’s pay inequity. A lot of this feels like less about fairness in women’s sports and more about policing women’s sports. I worry about speaking on these topics because I am a large, broad-shouldered female. I worry that somebody could say in this day and age, ‘Well, we don’t think she was actually born female. Drop your goddamn pants in front of me.’ That is in many ways more worrisome in terms of where women’s sports will go next.”
Addressing her 14-month suspension that was sanctioned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in May of last year, Johnson said she missed one of the tests because she was texting the wrong number. She said in another instance, she had inadvertently reported to the wrong address. Johnson suggested a better system and app are needed. “Nobody wants to miss tests. I always offered to go meet testers, but that’s up to the tester. Sometimes they will meet you and sometimes they won’t. That’s what happened to me,” she said. “It’s complicated, but I don’t have anything to hide. I was banned for 14 months, but now I’m back.”
