United States' Breezy Johnson shows her gold medal in the alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — For Breezy Johnson, the road to an Olympic gold medal was similar to the winning downhill run she turned in Sunday: It was full of jarring bumps that nearly knocked her off course, but not off target.

There was the knee injury here in Cortina during a training crash that ultimately kept the American from competing in the 2022 Beijing Games. There was the 14-month ban for violating “whereabouts” rules when it comes to testing for doping.

She kept a hard-charging attitude and that was on display in Cortina on a day marred by teammate Lindsey Vonn’s crash and trip to a hospital. The 30-year-old Johnson joins Vonn, 41, as the only American women to win the Olympic downhill.

“People are jealous of people with Olympic gold medals. They’re not necessarily jealous of the journey it took to get those medals,” said Johnson, who has never won a World Cup race. “I don’t think my journey is something that many people are envious of and it’s been a tough road, but sometimes you just have to keep going because that’s the only option. If you’re going through hell, you keep walking because you don’t want to just sit around in hell.”

Johnson finished in 1 minute, 36.10 seconds to hold off Emma Aicher of Germany by just .04 seconds, securing the first medal for the United States at the Milan Cortina Games in the process. Italy’s Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill winner and 2022 silver medalist, finished with the bronze.

The tears began welling in the eyes of Johnson as racer after racer couldn’t top her time, wiping them away with a mitten.

Her long-awaited medal? That didn’t hold up so well. The clasp holding the ribbon to the medal broke. She placed the pieces in her pocket.