Breezy Johnson, who comes from a place called Victor and wears the motto “Like the Wind,” has this season added a prestigious label in ski racing: U.S. downhill star.
Johnson is ranked second in the world going into the world Alpine skiing championships downhill on Saturday (TV and streaming info here). But No. 1 Sofia Goggia, the daring Olympic champion from Italy, will miss the race at home in Cortina d’Ampezzo due to a broken knee bone.
Johnson, skiing her best in returns from career-threatening injuries, can become the first American to win a world downhill title since Lindsey Vonn in 2009. And the only woman other than Vonn to earn a medal in the last 20 years.
Vonn turned 25 in 2009. Johnson, who turned 25 last month, embraces Saturday’s stage.
“I definitely feel like I’m one of, if not the best downhill skier in the world at world championships,” she told NBC Sports. “I know some people can find that brings a lot of pressure, but great pressure means great opportunity.”
Johnson seized this season, finishing on a World Cup podium for the first time in December. Then matching that third-place result in the next three downhills. When Vonn retired in 2019, it was unknown when another American speed racer would emerge to complement Mikaela Shiffrin‘s overall dominance on tour.
“I like to think that my success is a little bit part of [Vonn’s] legacy because of how much she taught me and how much her success has impacted my career,” said Johnson, who was awed when she first joined the U.S. team in 2015 and inspected race courses with Vonn.
Johnson’s story starts with connections to another U.S. downhill icon: Picabo Street, a fellow freckled youth Idahoan who also hailed from a unique hometown — Triumph.
“You’re like Picabo, she’s the freckle-faced fighter pilot,” her father and first coach, Greg, a former youth ski racer in New Hampshire, would tell her,
