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Alum Breezy Johnson wins her first Olympic gold medal

Johnson was a student in Western's Honors College

Long before Breezy Johnson won Olympic gold over the weekend in Cortina, Italy, she was a student at Western.  

Johnson won the gold medal in the women’s downhill event, and came in fourth Feb. 10 in the team combined event with Mikaela Shiffrin. Johnson did not finish the Super-G on Feb. 11 crashing a few seconds after the start. (However she did become engaged to her longtime boyfriend after the race.)

WWU News talked to Johnson in 2017 and 2018 while she was a student in WWU’s Honors College. She was spending spring quarters at Western and falls and winters with the U.S. Ski Team racing around the world.   

Breezy Johnson on campus in spring 2018, following her Olympic debut.

"When I finally get to Western each spring, it’s so nice to leave all my skis at home and just come to school and focus on my studies," Johnson said in 2017.  

She was thinking about becoming an English major. “I can’t get enough Shakespeare,” she said.

By then she had already spent three seasons on the World Cup circuit, specializing in speed. And Cortina d’Ampezzo, where she would eventually win the gold medal, was already a special place.  

“I remember watching an event at Cortina on TV when I was really little and being fascinated,” she said in 2017. “Now I ski it every year and had my first top-10 finish there.”  

Breezy Johnson on life as a WWU student and an Olympic skier.

We talked to Johnson again in 2018 after she had made her impressive Olympic debut in PyeongChang, South Korea, where she placed seventh in the downhill and 14th in Super-G. 

“I was 22 at the (2018) games,” Johnson said in a video interview on Red Square. “So there’s definitely more Olympics in me.”

Unfortunately, Johnson missed the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing after a knee injury sidelined her just before the games. The injury happened during a training run in Cortina, the scene of her gold medal comeback last weekend.  

A 2017 interview with Breezy Johnson, "An Olympian in Training," on the Western Window TV show.

After all the injuries and setbacks, Johnson returned to racing and won two gold medals at the 2025 Alpine World Championships – one in Downhill and the other in Team Combined with longtime friend Mikaela Shiffrin.  

The two placed fourth in the Olympic Team Combined event on Tuesday.

Johnson celebrates crossing the finish line at Cortina this week following her gold medal-winning run in the downhill event.