American women’s downhill skier Breezy Johnson was overcome with emotion during the playing of the national anthem after winning the women’s downhill and grabbing the first gold medal for Team USA.
“Johnson’s 1.36.10 was four hundredths quicker than Emma Aicher of Germany. Italy’s Sofia Goggia captured bronze with a 1:36.69,” Sports Illustrated reports.
Johnson’s gold medal win is only the second-ever for the U.S. women, coming 16 years after Lindsey Vonn won Team USA’s first gold. Johnson’s stunning performance also followed Vonn’s catastrophic fall earlier in the morning, ending her attempted comeback from a ruptured ACL.
Johnson’s story represents quite the comeback as well. A knee injury upended her chances at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. In 2024, she received a 14-month ban from the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) for whereabouts failure.
She finished 7th in the downhill and 14th in the Super G at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang.
Sunday marks Johnson’s first-ever trip to the medal stand, and it was for Olympic gold.