Breezy Johnson gave Americans rooting for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics a reason to smile.
Hours after fans were saddened to see Lindsey Vonn be airlifted out of a the famed Olympia delle Tofane slope, 13 seconds after starting her run on a ruptured ACL, the alpine skier won the women's downhill gold medal with a time of 1:36.10, effectively joining Lindsey as the only other American woman ever to win the Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing.
This marks the 30-year-old's first time at the Winter Olympics, having missed the Beijing Olympics in 2022 after tearing her ACL just a month before the Games. Here's what to know about her.
© Getty ImagesBreezy's early life
Breezy, whose full name is Breanna Noble Johnson, was born on January 19, 1996 in Jackson, Wyoming, but grew up near Victor, Idaho.
Her parents are Heather Noble, an attorney from Washington, D.C., and Greg Johnson, a former alpine racer and construction supervisor from New Hampshire, who met while skiing in Jackson Hole.
Breezy was up and skiing as early as three years old, skiing mostly at Grand Targhee, a ski resort about 20 miles from their home in Victor. "We'd get off the ski lift, and it'd be 'Meet you at the bottom, mom!' And off they'd go," her mother recalled to the Seattle Times in 2018.
© Getty ImagesFrom Breanna to Breezy
According to the Seattle Times, shortly before Breezy graduated from high school at Rowmark Ski Academy in Salt Lake City in 2013, her parents legally changed her name from Breanna to Breezy.
It was Breezy's grandmother who suggested the nickname, now legal name, when Breezy was a toddler, and Heather told the Seattle Times in 2018: "I thought, 'That's perfect. That's who the kid is.'"
She came out as bisexual in 2022
In a 2022 Instagram post, Breezy wrote: "So I'm bisexual. Before this season starts I wanted to be open about who I am. To those [LGBTQ] people out there who feel a little different and want to see people like them at the top I am here to represent that we are out there, we are normal, and we can do whatever we want."
"To the trolls who want to hate, hate doesn't beat love. To those who have no idea what I'm saying, head over to Google if ya want to know. To those who just want to hear about racing, headed to Copper for the final training block!" she added.
She dedicated her win to her dad
In an interview with NBC News, Breezy revealed that her father was "in an accident a couple weeks ago," and therefore couldn't be there at the Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Moreover, she revealed that Greg, who was the one who taught her how to ski, just learned he would not be able to ski anymore. Through tears, she said: "The least I could do was try to ski fast for him."
© Getty ImagesBreezy already broke her new gold medal
Shortly after her win, Breezy became one of the several athletes so far in this year's Winter Olympics to have already broken their medals, after it broke off from its ribbon while she was celebrating. "Don't jump in them," she told reporters, per the New York Times. "I was jumping in excitement and it broke."
"It's not, like, crazy broken. But, a little broken," he noted. Andrea Francisi, the chief games operation officer for these Olympics, already spoke out about the breaking medals, saying during a news conference: "We are going to pay particular attention to the medals, and obviously this is something we want to be perfect when the medal is handed over because this is one of the most important moments for the athletes."
