Johnson dominates downhill with two events to go

Wyoming-born racer to team up with slalom specialist Mikaela Shiffrin in Tuesday’s combined event ahead of the super-G.
Breezy Johnson at the finish of the downhill race on Feb. 8, in which she earned her the win and American's first gold of the 2026 Olympic Games. (Michael Kappeler/ U.S. Ski and Snowboard)

Fresh off her first gold medal in Sunday’s downhill, this week’s Olympic schedule brings another shot at gold for one Teton Valley Olympian. 

Victor, Idaho-raised Breezy Johnson, 30, became the first Olympic gold medalist raised in the Tetons with her Sunday victory on the historic downhill track in Cortina D’Ampezzo. 

Johnson’s win cements her legacy in the sport’s fastest discipline. She came into the race as the most recent world champion after her Feb. 2025 win in Saalbach, Austria.

U.S. Ski and Snowboard tapped this Olympics’ first American gold medalist Johnson to compete in the team combined event with Mikaela Shiffrin on Tuesday. The pair won a world championship in the event last year. 

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Veteran American Lindsey Vonn had been ahead of Johnson in the season’s downhill standings, ranked in the top spot, heading into the Games before a crash that broke her leg just 13 seconds into the event. 

Johnson, too, had a dramatic fall on the famous Italian course. A crash on the same hill four years ago took her out of the running for the 2022 Olympics. 

But on Feb. 8 she tore down the course, reaching speeds of over 70 miles per hour to cross the finish in 1:36.10. She finished 0.04 seconds ahead of Germany’s Emma Aicher.

Johnson fought back tears standing on the top of the podium on Feb. 8. She said she considers it an accomplishment to simply have kept competing. 

“Going out and giving it your all despite the risks is something not a lot of people can do,“ she told the Today show

Johnson’s win made her the second American ever to win the women’s downhill, the first being Vonn in 2010. 

Johnson was born in Teton County, Wyoming and raised in Victor, Idaho. She raced for the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club until she was 13

On Thursday, Johnson is also set to race in the women’s super-G.

Here’s the remaining schedule for Teton County’s three Olympians: 

Feb. 10 — Jaelin Kauf (Alta), moguls qualification

Feb. 11 — Jaelin Kauf, moguls final 

Feb. 14 — Jaelin Kauf, dual moguls

Feb. 10 and 12, 2026 — Breezy Johnson (Victor, Idaho and Jackson), alpine team combined and super-G  

Feb. 19, 2026 — Anna Gibson (Teton Village), ski mountaineering sprint

Feb. 21, 2026 — Anna Gibson, ski mountaineering mixed relay

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About Sophia Boyd-Fliegel

Before leading news coverage at KHOL, Sophia was a politics reporter at the Jackson Hole News&Guide. Her reporting on elections, labor and land use has earned state, regional and national awards. Sophia grew up in Seattle and studied human biology and English at Stanford University.

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