American skier Breezy Johnson received Staff USA’s first gold medal of the Milano Cortina Winter Video games within the ladies’s downhill, a bittersweet victory after teammate Lindsey Vonn crashed out through the race.
Johnson, 30, was the sixth runner and the primary of 4 American skiers down the course on Saturday and took the lead early on after flying down the long-lasting Olympia delle Tofana course on a sunny day in Cortina in 1:36.10. It’s her first-ever Olympic medal.
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Emma Aicher of Germany and Sofia Goggia of Italy rounded up the rostrum.
Johnson is the second American lady to ever win the Olympic gold medal in downhill snowboarding, the primary being Vonn on the 2010 Vancouver Video games. Johnson was visibly moved as she obtained her medal and the nationwide anthem was performed.
“I had an excellent feeling about as we speak. I kind of nonetheless cannot consider it but,” Johnson mentioned. “I do not know when it would sink in.”
It has been a tumultuous street to the highest for Johnson, who sat out the 2022 Beijing Olympics with a knee harm. She was given a 14-month ban that expired in December 2024 for lacking three anti-doping exams and violating “whereabouts” guidelines. She returned to win the world championship final February.
Vonn, who was a gold-medal favourite earlier than she ruptured her ACL every week in the past, crashed simply 13.4 seconds into her downhill run. She misplaced management over the opening traverse after reducing the road too tightly and was spun round within the air. She was heard screaming out after the crash as she was surrounded by medical personnel earlier than she was strapped to a gurney and flown away by a helicopter, presumably ending the skier’s storied profession.
Vonn’s “proper ski pole snagged a gate, jerking her off stability and uncontrolled. She was airlifted from the mountain, a standard apply for accidents throughout alpine competitors,” Staff USA mentioned.
“I hope it isn’t as unhealthy because it appeared,” Johnson mentioned. “Generally, since you love this course a lot, whenever you crash on it and hurts you want that, it hurts that a lot worse. My coronary heart simply goes out to her.”
The opposite People within the race — Jacqueline Wiles and Isabella Wright — completed in fifth and twenty first locations, respectively.
