“It’s been slightly loopy.”
That’s how Breezy Johnson described having not too long ago received the ladies’s downhill occasion and the ladies’s workforce mixed on the FIS Alpine World Snowboarding Championships in Saalbach, Austria. To take action, the U.S. nationwide ski workforce member needed to overcome a spate of accidents lately together with a torn ACL and a 14-month suspension from the game following three missed drug exams.
Taking the gold medal for the workforce mixed together with her childhood pal and the game’s most completed athlete Mikaela Shiffrin heightened that comeback. Reached Friday in Izola, Slovenia, Johnson mentioned she was taking just a few days off together with her boyfriend, and their subsequent cease could be Venice earlier than returning to the slopes for the second half of the season. The American goals to return to the Winter Olympics in 2026.
Breezy Johnson competes within the downhill leg of Ladies’s Crew Mixed throughout this month’s Audi FIS Alpine World Snowboarding Championships.
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The 29-year-old mentioned of her momentous week, “It’s been actually cool. In some methods, it’s been a very long time coming. I’ve been on the precipice of some of these wins and successes many instances. It simply by no means completely labored out, on account of damage, seasons ending or no matter,” she mentioned.
Johnson added, “I knew I had a shot at it final weekend. However I believed, ‘Perhaps these items don’t work out for you.’ You simply must ski nicely and hope that it’s sufficient to make you cheerful and know that you just gave it your greatest.”
For Johnson, that would imply reaching speeds of 86 miles per hour in coaching runs and taking jumps of 40 meters in competitors. Her success makes the battle of overcoming accidents “actually value it,” she mentioned. “But it surely’s undoubtedly been tough for some time.”
Born in Victor, Wyoming, Johnson grew up racing and competing with Shiffrin in Jackson Gap, beginning on the age of 12. That connection reminded her this week of how excited she would have been had she often known as a 12-year-old that they may someday be one workforce. Johnson mentioned, “While you’re younger, you could have all of those large goals, however you by no means think about the hardships that you’ll undergo. Sure, ‘Little Me’ would have been so excited. However ‘Little Me’ didn’t perceive how arduous it’s. It’s value extra now since you’ve been by a lot. You understand how few individuals do it and why few individuals do it.”
Breezy Johnson wins the gold medal throughout the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships for the Ladies’s Crew Mixed on Feb. 11, 2025 in Saalbach, Austria.
Getty Photographs
Earlier than reaching a record-breaking 99 World Cup race wins, Shiffrin has spoken brazenly about coping with PTSD after a crash final fall. She additionally has been criticized within the media after her 2002 Olympic efficiency. Johnson, a fellow 2022 Olympian, mentioned she wished to compete together with her within the mixed “to ease the burden,” and warranted her there was no stress to win. “This was one thing that I wished to provide to her, as a result of she’s given a lot to the game. She’s helped me since I used to be slightly child,” Johnson mentioned.
Surprisingly, Johnson doesn’t have an attire sponsor, however she is eager to collaborate with an outside or knitwear model. An avid knitter, she makes the headbands that she wears in competitors, as nicely hats and scarves. Though she trains and competes in spandex fits, for extra informal runs on the mountain, she’s going to put on a Theo jacket and common pants. Lululemon is one in all her favourite manufacturers and ThredUp is a favourite place to buy, mentioned Johnson, who described her model as “pretty athletic-ish.” Touring to eight or 9 principally European nations annually, Johnson has seen the picket soles on Austrian boots and Europeans’ desire for tight-fitting kinds. “Even within the U.S., the model in Jackson [Hole, Wyo.] is extra about [The] North Face, Spyder and extra practical manufacturers. If you happen to go to Vail or Aspen, it’s extra about Bogner and Cordova. It varies nation to nation, nevertheless it varies extra from resort to resort,” Johnson mentioned.
Talking of her determination to return out publicly as a bisexual in 2022, Johnson mentioned regardless of being a personal particular person, she didn’t need younger youngsters to really feel they couldn’t be their genuine selves. As for the general public debate about gender in sports activities, Johnson mentioned she has a transgender pal, Jay Riccomini, who competes in Slopestyle for the U.S. ski workforce as a lady, which is his start gender. Noting that he doesn’t take hormones, Johnson mentioned she “actually struggles” with how he will get misgendered on a regular basis. “That’s unfair and other people say issues to him like, ‘Why can’t you simply be regular?’” she mentioned.
When it comes to NCAA sports activities, Johnson mentioned, “There are loads larger issues than transgender athletes in sport. There’s pay inequity. Lots of this seems like much less about equity in girls’s sports activities and extra about policing girls’s sports activities. I fear about talking on these subjects as a result of I’m a big, broad-shouldered feminine. I fear that any individual may say at the present time, ‘Properly, we don’t suppose she was truly born feminine. Drop your goddamn pants in entrance of me.’ That’s in some ways extra worrisome by way of the place girls’s sports activities will go subsequent.”
Addressing her 14-month suspension that was sanctioned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Company in Could of final yr, Johnson mentioned she missed one of many exams as a result of she was texting the incorrect quantity. She mentioned in one other occasion, she had inadvertently reported to the incorrect tackle. Johnson steered a greater system and app are wanted. “No one needs to overlook exams. I at all times provided to go meet testers, however that’s as much as the tester. Typically they are going to meet you and generally they received’t. That’s what occurred to me,” she mentioned. “It’s difficult, however I don’t have something to cover. I used to be banned for 14 months, however now I’m again.”