- Breezy Johnson, a 2013 graduate of Rowland Hall's Rowmark Ski Academy in Salt Lake City, won Olympic downhill gold at Milano Cortina 2026, a year after winning two world titles. Her season opens at Beaver Creek on Dec. 11.
- Breezy Johnson connect back to Utah Homegrown and the wider olympic sports picture.
- The story is backed by 13 sources and a visible last-verified date.
October 31, 2026
October 31, 2026
4 min / 858 words
13 official links
Breezy Johnson won the women's downhill at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on Feb. 8, 2026, at Cortina d'Ampezzo. FIS timed her at 1:36.10, four hundredths of a second ahead of Germany's Emma Aicher, with Italy's Sofia Goggia third. U.S. Ski & Snowboard said it was Team USA's first medal of the Games.
"I don't think my journey (to this gold medal) is something that many people are envious of, and it's been a tough road," she told U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
The Utah years
Johnson grew up in Victor, Idaho. As a teenager she moved to Salt Lake City to enroll at Rowland Hall's Rowmark Ski Academy, spent her high school years there and graduated in 2013, the Deseret News reported. Rowland Hall lists her among its alumnae as a member of the class of 2013, and she joined the U.S. national team in 2014.
Rowmark is still part of her record. U.S. Ski & Snowboard lists the academy as her club, including on its 2026-27 team roster, and KSL counted her among the three Team USA athletes at the 2026 Games who came through the Rowmark program.
"So she almost outworks all her competition, and she does it day in and day out," Rowmark director Per Lundstam told the Deseret News.
A course that had stopped her before
The Olympic win came at the venue that ended her bid for Beijing 2022. U.S. Ski & Snowboard says a season-ending knee injury derailed her run toward those Games, and its gold-medal story noted she won on a course that knocked her out of the 2022 Olympics. Four years earlier, at PyeongChang 2018, she had finished seventh in the downhill and 14th in the super-G.
Before that injury she had been building toward a medal. FIS records show her first World Cup podiums at Val d'Isere, France, on Dec. 18 and 19, 2020, then two second places at Lake Louise, Canada, on Dec. 3 and 4, 2021, and another second at Val d'Isere on Dec. 18, 2021, weeks before the Beijing season ended for her.
There was a second interruption. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced in May 2024 that she had accepted a 14-month sanction for three whereabouts failures, starting Oct. 10, 2023, and said her degree of fault was relatively low given the circumstances. She returned to win a world title less than a year after the agency's announcement.
Two world titles in four days
At the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, Austria, she won the downhill on Feb. 8, 2025, in 1:41.29, ahead of Austria's Mirjam Puchner and the Czech Republic's Ester Ledecka, by FIS results. Three days later she won the team combined with Mikaela Shiffrin.
The Olympic season around the gold
Her 2025-26 World Cup season was the best of her career in the downhill. She was third at Crans Montana on Jan. 31, 2026, her first super-G podium by FIS records, third at Val di Fassa on March 6, and second at the World Cup Finals at Kvitfjell on March 21, finishing third in the downhill standings. FIS records 11 World Cup podiums in her career.
"I'll go back and keep working, but I'm so happy and I feel like it's been a great season," she said after the Finals.
At the Olympics she also finished fourth in the team combined with Shiffrin on Feb. 10 and did not finish the super-G on Feb. 12, FIS records show.
Her U.S. Ski & Snowboard page carries her own goal: "I want to be one of the greatest speed skiers ever and inspire a new generation of women in speed and sport."
Her record
- Olympics: downhill gold, 2026; seventh in the downhill, 2018
- World Championships: downhill gold and team combined gold, 2025
- World Cup: 11 podiums; third in the 2025-26 downhill standings
- U.S. Championships: national downhill champion in 2016 and 2020, per U.S. Ski & Snowboard
The 2026-27 season
U.S. Ski & Snowboard named Johnson to the A team of the 2026-27 U.S. Alpine Ski Team on Oct. 7, 2026, calling her the Olympic downhill champion and two-time world champion. The FIS calendar opens the women's downhill season at Beaver Creek with races on Dec. 11 and 12, 2026, and a super-G on Dec. 13. The women's downhill tour then moves through Val di Fassa and Cortina in January, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in February and Kvitfjell in March, before the World Cup Finals at Sun Valley, Idaho, March 18-25, 2027. The World Championships come at Crans Montana, Switzerland, from Feb. 1 to 14, 2027.
For more Utah winter athletes, see the Utah 2034 Olympics hub.
Key facts:
- Athlete: Breezy Johnson, alpine skiing (downhill and super-G), 2026-27 U.S. Alpine Ski Team A team
- Utah tie: Rowland Hall's Rowmark Ski Academy, Salt Lake City, class of 2013; Rowmark remains her listed club
- Hometown: Jackson Hole, Wyoming, per U.S. Ski & Snowboard; grew up in Victor, Idaho
- Olympic gold: downhill, Milano Cortina 2026, Feb. 8, 2026, 1:36.10, by FIS timing
- World titles: downhill and team combined, Saalbach 2025
- World Cup: 11 podiums; third in the 2025-26 downhill standings
- Next: World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek, Dec. 11, 2026
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