No Mikaela Shiffrin x Lindsey Vonn at the 2025 World Championships? Umm, not a problem anymore! Because a new ski duo is about to take the world by storm. And that features 3x Olympic medalist Shiffrin with America’s newest golden girl. One will take care of the Slalom bit while the other will ace the downhill as part of the team combined event. But, apart from their love for skiing, there’s one huge similarity between them. And that makes us feel they would make a certain winning pair!

February 9, 2025, Mikaela Shiffrin cited her mental health, mainly the PTSD from her November 30 Killington crash, and bowed out of the GS event at the World Championships. Heartbreaking? Absolutely, no doubt. But her team’s combined events partner may know how that exactly feels. Because sadly she’s been through it too! And who says that? Well, Breezy Johnson herself confessed this over social media. Skiing is as much mental as it is physical, and it looks like these two skiers know this all too well!

Shortly after Shiffrin’s update, Breezy Johnson, her to-be partner for the World Championships, added the 29-year-old’s post to her Instagram story and wrote, “I have also struggled with mild PTSD after injury.” Yes, it turns out she’s been through a similar plunge in her life. And the aftermath of that harrowing phase pulls her back even today. “I had many months to heal both my body and mind before racing and I still struggle skiing in slush/unforozen snow and used to get panic attacks in those conditions.”

However, the fact that Breezy Johnson’s been through both agonizing injuries and PTSD gives her the vantage point to understand how the recovery is anything but time-bound. No wonder she’s taking a stand for her partner Mikaela Shiffrin’s resilience and is giving her a well-deserved shoutout. “Miki has had very little time to recover. It’s amazing that she is here and I appreciate her speaking about her struggle,” she wrote in her story.

Well, Breezy Johnson’s just the right person to be handing out this advice to Shiffrim. After all, the skier has been through multiple injuries in her career, the first three in her knee coming in 2016. Another ACL tear in 2018 made her anxious, whereas a fluke crash in June 2019 left her with a PCL and MCL tear in the opposite knee. That’s when she knew she had to see a sports psychologist for her mental health. Because “When you haven’t raced you have nothing to counter the voice in your head saying ‘maybe you suck,'” as reported by SkiRacing in 2020.

Today, Shiffrin found herself in a similar spot. In her February 9 update, Mikaela Shiffrin noted that she’ll be backing from the individual giant slalom races because ‘she is not there yet‘ in coping with the mental struggle her injury has left her with. Also, in the same post, she gave a shoutout to Breezy Johnson saying, “What a journey she [Johnson] has been on…she knows the mental challenges of this sport better than anyone. She has fought tooth and nail to get here, and now she is World Champion…her journey and grit and determination has inspired the heck out of me.”

Clearly, even Shiffrin knows that Johnson decided not to be defined by her fears. Or let the mental toll weigh heavily on her. No wonder she was able to pull through a very difficult phase in her career recently. But this time, it wasn’t the injuries!

Mikaela Shiffrin gets advice from partner who just returned from a ban

It was a sight worth watching when Breezy Johnson sped her way through the Downhill race last Saturday. Dominating the race on the Zwolferkogel course in Saalbach, Austria, Johnson emerged as the winner of the Downhill World Championships race. Cruising at a record speed of 138.51 kilometers per hour, she crossed the finish line in 1:41.29 minutes. She finished in a commendable time despite coming back from a long gap!

Once such a performance looked impossible! After Breezy Johnson had missed the Beijing Olympics (due to a knee injury), she failed to report to the United States Anti-Doping Agency three times within a year. As a result of this violation, she was handed a suspension for 14 months. She confessed on Saturday, as reported by ‘U.S.News,’ that the first missed test “was my fault.” For the second one, a confusing scenario was to be blamed as she texted her whereabouts to the wrong number. And the third time, “there was a glitch on the app.”

But the ban ended just two months back, in December 2024. Thus, she returned to the World Cup only recently. And now she is ready to pair up with Mikaela Shiffrin and perform tomorrow. However, do you think the duo will be able to make a mark at the World Championships this year? Share your predictions below!