Breezy Johnson is the fourth American woman to win the downhill at the World Alpine Skiing Championships, marking the first major victory of her career.
Johnson, the first racer, put down a time and then waited in the finish area for more than an hour to see if anybody would beat it. No one did.
She prevailed by 15 hundredths of a second over Austrian Mirjam Puchner in Saalbach, Austria, on Saturday, exactly one year before the Milan Cortina Olympic downhill is scheduled. Czech Ester Ledecká earned bronze.
“It’s a little bit nerve-racking to sit in the leader’s chair, but it’s way harder to sit there at the top waiting for your run,” Johnson, a 29-year-old who grew up in Victor, Idaho, said on Peacock. “I was definitely grateful to run No. 1.”
ALPINE SKIING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Johnson became the first American to win a world downhill title since Lindsey Vonn in 2009. Vonn placed 15th Saturday in her first downhill at worlds in six years.
The other Americans to claim world downhill gold were Hilary Lindh (1997) and fellow Idahoan Picabo Street (1996), plus Bode Miller in the men’s race in 2005.
Johnson was born “Breanna,” but her grandmother convinced her mom to borrow the unique name of a neighbor. Breezy was put on skis in the family driveway for 10-yard glides at age 3.
She debuted at the Olympics in 2018, then went 22 months between World Cup races due to injuries, learning to sleep with her knees on bolsters. She returned to make seven downhill podiums in 2020 and 2021, all second- and third-place finishes.
She was ranked second in the world in downhill on Jan. 21, 2022, when she tore cartilage in her right knee in a training run crash. That ruled her out of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Johnson did not race in the 2023-24 World Cup season. Two months after the season ended, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced in May that Johnson was suspended 14 months for failing to properly provide her whereabouts for out-of-competition drug testing.
The ban was backdated to Oct. 10, 2023, the date of her third whereabouts failure that triggered the ban.
Athletes can be banned up to two years for whereabouts failures. Johnson’s level of fault was “relatively low given the circumstances of the case,” according to USADA.
When Johnson was sidelined by injuries in past years, she still watched World Cup races from afar. She didn’t do that last season. “There was just too much frustration,” she said, according to a SkiRacing.com article in January.
After having to train alone for months during her suspension, it took eight races this season for Johnson to break back into the top 10. On Jan. 25, she placed fourth in the last World Cup downhill before the world championships.
“I’ve been working hard for so long. Sometimes it was the luck. Sometimes it was the injuries,” Johnson 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.”
This week, she was second-fastest in the first two of three downhill training runs. Then on Saturday morning before the downhill, she journaled a poem.
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.
“Hoping I could pull off this miraculous feat,” Johnson posted on social media after she won. “Knowing that no matter what it is an honor to go out and try.”
Worlds continue Sunday with the men’s downhill, live at 5:30 a.m. ET on Peacock.
Swiss Marco Odermatt, who won Friday’s super-G, bids to become the first man to repeat as downhill world champ since countryman Bernhard Russi in 1972 (when the Olympics counted as world championships, too).
Marco Odermatt could win three gold medals at the World Alpine Skiing Championships.
FIS World Alpine Skiing Championships 2025 Results — Women’s Downhill
Gold: Breezy Johnson (USA) — 1:41.29
Silver: Mirjam Puchner (AUT) — +.15
Bronze: Ester Ledecka (CZE) — +.21
4. Cornelia Huetter (AUT) — +.34
5. Lauren Macuga (USA) — +.38
6. Emma Aicher (GER) — +.48
7. Corinne Suter (SUI) — +.62
8. Nicol Delago (ITA) — +.76
9. Stephanie Venier (AUT) — +.99
10. Federica Brignone (ITA) — +1.19
15. Lindsey Vonn (USA) — +1.96
16. Sofia Goggia (ITA) — +1.97
DNF. Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI)
DNF. Jacqueline Wiles (USA)