The last day of February marked the start of the women’s World Cup downhill event. Skiers around the world geared up for the event at Kvitfjell, Norway. But it was Austria’s Cornelia Huetter who secured the gold. On the other hand, veterans like Lindsey Vonn had to settle for a 13th-place finish. But while Vonn isn’t taking this too hard writing “you deserve it” on her story, some others weren’t that pleased. And one of them was Mikaela Shiffrin‘s tag-team partner, Breezy Johnson.

The rankings after the downhill race left the captain of the U.S. women, Breezy Johnson, shocked. “I was a little surprised with the results,” the American told the Austrian broadcaster ORF. “I had a couple of mistakes in the middle.” The Rowmark Academy grad felt undeserving of her position at the table, for she made mistakes.

The 29-year-old was second for the US team to put on the skies and slide downhill after Jackie Wiles. She had a good start and the fuel to go for the gold but made a few mistakes, clocking a time of 1:31.86. Despite all this, the athlete feels good. She said, “I feel good, all things considered. You have to push and try things out.” The skier felt pretty positive as she conveyed her feelings.

She further continued, “You

must risk things, and considering all that I risked and all that I paid for, I feel like I did pretty well.” Very mature of the American skiing captain to acknowledge her mistakes while understanding that taking risks is a way to grow in the game; you can be left behind if your game starts lacking the surprise element.

Germany’s Emma Aicher was the surprise in this championship; she just came racing down like an avalanche, clocking a 1:31.61, falling 0.15 seconds behind the gold’s 1:31.46. Emma came in second, while Breezy Johnson had the bronze, a finish she has been waiting for a long time.

First Alpine podium for Breezy Johnson in three years

The world turned upside down for the American skier when she was suspended for 14 months by the US anti-doping agency in 2023 because she did not properly provide her whereabouts for out-of-competition drug testing. Some might say that the athlete was let off easy, as whereabouts failures can lead to a ban of 2 years.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency reasoned that Johnson’s suspension was “relatively low given the circumstances of the case. But this does not mean it was easy for her. “It’s not like coming back from injury,” Johnson said. “With all my injuries, I always watched the World Cup tour. Last year I couldn’t. There was just too much frustration.”

With injuries, she had the privilege to be on the bench and training with her coaches and mentor, but the ban was different. After training separately from the U.S. team due to the terms of the suspension, the Wyoming native returned to the team in 2024. The skier had been waiting for a podium finish after her seven World Cup downhill podiums in 2020 and 2021, all second- and third-place finishes.

This was also delayed because she had to give up on the 2022 Olympics after tearing cartilage in her right knee in a training crash. Come 2025, she was going to change that. The American team started with two gold medals at the World Championships, and they also teamed up with the athlete with 100-world cup wins, Mikaela Shiffrin, for a combined event.

The third position at the Kvitfjell Downhill has brought her the much-awaited Alpine skiing World Cup podium in three years, preparing her for Milano Cortina 2026. How well are the risks of the American skier paid off in the winter Olympics? Do share your thoughts.