From Injury Recovery to Olympic Medalist: Breezy Johnson

In 2020, Breezy Johnson shared her story with The Hidden Opponent, detailing her mental and physical recovery following two major injuries and her journey back to Team USA and skiing.

Following her post, the 2022 Olympics were in sight, where she qualified to compete but was unfortunately sidelined due to an injury she sustained in training.

More determined than ever, and five years after sharing her story, Johnson was forced to confront the same Cortino course that ended her Olympic dreams in 2022.

“I’m going to have to come back to this same place with a body that’s been put back together and try to accomplish my goals,” she told NBC News last May. “It’s a beautiful place, [but] it has teeth and has also hurt a lot of people.”

But Johnson overcame the adversary, making history as Team USA's first gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, joining Lindsey Vonn as the only other American to win a gold medal in Olympic downhill skiing.

She won this year's competition with a time of 1 minute, 36.10 seconds, .04 seconds ahead of Germany’s Emma Aicher, the silver place finisher.

And despite the physical challenges and triumphs, there is something to be said about Johnson's work within the mental side of sport. After her injury in 2022 led to severe mental health struggles, she began working with a sports psychologist to cope with not being able to compete and to help with her spiraling thoughts.

"As I got farther into therapy, I realized that the perfectionist thoughts that I had relied upon to push me farther and farther; the self-doubt that I had relied upon to keep me from becoming complacent in victory; and my freakish desire for control that had allowed me to hone every aspect in my search for greatness –they were all spiraling out of control with this injury," Johnson shared. "My work with Alex allowed me to parse through my thoughts and discover their deeper meaning, which gave me control and a real way to combat my mental demons."

And despite experiencing another injury before the 2022 Olympic Games, she was more mentally prepared than ever to deal with the recovery journey ahead. And that preparedness and mental strength have helped propel her to the success she is experiencing today!

"If you're going through hell, you keep walking because you don't want to just sit around in hell," Johsnon said. "And sometimes when you keep going, maybe you'll make it back to the top."