Breezy Johnson turns World title into Olympic downhill gold in Cortina

Breezy Johnson (USA) has completed an incredible double, becoming Olympic downhill champion a year to the day since becoming World Champion.

The American ensured 8 February is truly her day with gold in a time of 1:36.10, with Emma Aicher (GER) and Sofia Goggia (ITA) joining her on the Olympic podium.

Johnson’s victory provided joy for the USA team on a tough day, with Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic return ending in a heartbreaking crash.

Breezy reaches the top

Breezy Johnson: Olympic and World champion. The World Cup season for Johnson hasn’t delivered quite what she maybe would have hoped so far, but she’s saved everything for these occasions. A year to the day since winning the World downhill title, she produced a superb showing in Cortina to add the Olympic crown to her collection.

It’s an emotional full turnaround, coming after missing the Beijing 2022 Olympics due to injuries. "I had a good feeling about today" Johnson said after securing gold. "I still can’t believe it yet, I don’t know when it will sink in. I knew I had to push, go harder than I did in training. I had to be super clean and felt like I did that. But I knew the speeds were good so I hoped it would be enough."

No stranger to big victories from early positions, Johnson was up sixth and set the time to beat, just as she did at the World Championships.

The Story of the Downhill

36 starters, one dream. In a truly packed field on Olympia Delle Tofane, expectations were through the roof as the stories were flowing. The USA duo of Lindsey Vonn, Breezy Johnson among them, the latter who won the World title a year to the day ago. The Italian squad, on home snow, with a magnificent season in the pocket already.

Speaking of success already in the pocket, out first was Malorie Blanc (SUI), Super G World Cup winner a week earlier in Crans Montana. Her focus for medals will be on that final rather than this, though she completed her run at 1:38.77 to set the pack off. Ariane Raedler (AUT) took charge going in 1.57 faster, before home star Federica Brignone (ITA) finished in a time just behind Raedler.

2025 World champion Johnson left for the slopes sixth out, and she dominated her outing, just as she did in Friday's training session. Johnson overcame a slow start, picking up speed as she went and recording best times in three of the final four sections at the time of her finish. 1:36.10 saw the American record a 1.10 second lead, bringing dreams of anniversary World success to the mind.

Home hopes of replicating the men’s downhill podium started to falter, Nicol Delago not able to build on her Tarvisio victory after a difficult start in Cortina. Laura Pirovano did keep dreams going though, temporarily moving into second spot after eight racers. Emma Aicher (GER) has had a spectacular campaign so far and despite a couple of mistakes in the later stages, moved into podium positions.

Lindsey Vonn’s (USA) phenomenal season has brought her incredible abilities back to the slopes over the past two seasons, but an injury picked up in the final World Cup before the Games put her participation in jeopardy. Vonn’s determination, drive and sheer will to compete at these Olympic Games has captured the attention of all. But Sunday’s run didn’t go to plan, Vonn crashing early in heartbreaking scenes.

The aftermath of that resulted in a lengthy delay, with Sofia Goggia (ITA) soon out in the hope of adding a third Olympic downhill medal to her collection. The 2018 Olympic champion crossed in third at a home Games, with reigning champion Corinne Suter (SUI) up next. But it’s been a tough couple of years on the snow for Suter, unable here to go back-to-back.

Jacqueline Wiles (USA) almost made it to the podium too, a spot shy in fourth (equal with Cornelia Huetter of Austria). Ultimately, it meant that as with the men's downhill yesterday, the World champion became the Olympic champion, as Johnson completed an astonishing double.

Silver for Aicher

For Emma Aicher, a first Olympic medal is an astonishing achievement – and it’s a silver that was so close to gold, just 0.04s behind winner Johnson.

"It feels unbelievable" Aicher said after receiving her medal. "It's going to take a while for me to realise, but I'm so, so happy. I just focused on my stuff (before the race) like any other race. I think I managed to do that well. But the waiting (after the race) is the annoying part, just because I can't do anything anymore."

The wait was ultimately worth it for Aicher, the chasing pack unable to displace her from the silver spot in Cortina.

Sofia adds another Olympic medal

Olympic medals and Sofia Goggia, they just go hand-in-hand. The bronze here is now the third for Goggia, and this one comes on home snow. “I know I made some mistakes here and there” she admits. “But at the same time, if I have to think overall, it's the third medal in my third Olympics. It's huge. So-so with my performance, but in the overall I got a medal again. It's a privilege."

Coming up next

A stunning opening weekend of downhill action comes to a close, but the pace doesn’t let up from here. The next two days see the action turn to a Games first, as the Team Combined events take place on Monday and Tuesday.

Keep an eye on our channels and across FIS Alpine social media for all the big information. And for the full results from the downhill, click here.