A golden American on the way down, but not the one you think. Breezy Johnson, world champion in the discipline, won the gold medal this Sunday, February 8 in the women’s downhill at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, in a major event marked by the new serious injury of her compatriot Lindsey Vonn, who almost attempted the impossible with her titanium knee.
Under the eyes of American rapper Snoop Dogg, the 30-year-old alpine skier narrowly won ahead of German Emma Aicher, also among the favorites before the start. Johnson won gold just over a year after the end of her 14-month suspension by the Anti-Doping Agency for whereabouts violations, which deprived her of competitions between November 2023 and December 2024.
The Italian Sofia Goggia, the last bearer of the Olympic flame in Cortina during the opening ceremony on Friday evening, takes home the bronze medal, four years after the silver obtained in Beijing and eight after her coronation in Pyeongchang in the same discipline.
The race interrupted for a long time with Vonn’s injury
Starting with bib number 6, Breezy Johnson assumed her status as reigning world champion by completing a magnificent descent on the Olympia della Tofane in Cortina in 1′36″10. By setting off so early, she gritted her teeth in her leadership seat as her competitors passed successively. Above all, she – literally – breathed with relief when Emma Aicher, tenth to start, crossed the line only four hundredths behind her.
But unfortunately, the event was especially marked by two terrible falls, including that of Lindsey Vonn, already the victim of a ruptured cruciate ligament in her left knee a little over a week ago. Starting in 13th position, the 41-year-old American violently fell after only 13 seconds of racing, catching her right arm in a door. Screaming in pain on the runway, she was evacuated by helicopter.
After an interruption of around twenty minutes, the race ended up resuming but only Sofia Goggia (bib 15) managed to claim victory among the competitors who left after these serious images. With a few precious tenths of a second lost, the local star was ultimately only able to grab a third place on the podium at home.
Among the French, Laura Gauché (bib no. 23) is the first French skier in the ranking with her thirteenth place, three ranks ahead of Romane Miradoli, who started with bib 19 (16th). Camille Cerutti (bib 25) finished in 23rd place.
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