Ask someone in Sun Valley if Breanna Johnson is skiing on Baldy and you might get a funny look – they know her as Breezy.
And now, much of the world knows her name too, as Johnson won Olympic gold in one of the Winter Games' highest profile events – the Women’s Downhill. In fact, she joins a list of American skiing legends by winning the downhill by .04 seconds.
Johnson’s success was extra sweet, coming off a 14-month suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for failing to “properly provide her whereabouts for out-of-competition drug testing.” Johnson told SkiRacing.com that, during much of the suspension, she trained alone.
“I’ve been working hard for so long. Sometimes it was the luck. Sometimes it was the injuries,” she told Swiss broadcaster SRF. “After a while, you kind of start being like, it’s about the process, and I just want to ski well, and the results maybe don’t come, and you have to just be happy with what you did yourself. And so then to have the results come is crazy.”
NBC Sports reports that Johnson recently journaled:
“It is a gift just to play the game
And the winning is only valued because
The losing is so likely
And yet to live bravely
Is to have already won.”
The last American Olympic downhill gold medalist was Lindsay Vonn, who, in the same Feb. 8, 2026 race, crashed 13 seconds into her own attempt to reclaim glory, but on a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
Johnson is an Idaho native, growing up while worshipping another Idaho living legend and gold medalist, Picabo Street.
Shortly before finishing high school, her parents allowed Johnson to legally change her first name from Breanna to Breezy to match her nickname.
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
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