‘Everything I could’: Idaho-raised skier wins world championship in marquee event
An Idaho-raised skier is the women’s 2025 downhill world champion after a first-place performance in Austria on Saturday, according to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
Breezy Johnson, 29, grew up in Victor, Idaho, and skied at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming, according to prior Idaho Statesman reporting.
“I knew I made some mistakes, but I also knew that I charged and gave everything I could,” Johnson said, according to ESPN.
Johnson went first and finished with a time of 1:41.29. None of the other skiers who followed managed to top that time. The second-place winner finished 0.15 seconds off of Johnson’s pace.
The victory is Johnson’s first major race win after seven prior World Cup podium finishes. It also was her first medal since returning from 14 months of ineligibility for violating anti-doping rules that require an athlete provide their whereabouts for possible out-of-competition drug testing.
Earlier in her career, Johnson dealt with a leg injury, but recovered well. Growing up, Johnson’s parents didn’t discourage her on her home turf in Jackson.
“My parents … they weren’t, ‘Be timid because you’re a girl,’ ” Johnson previously told the Statesman. “That’s a crazy mountain. We’d just huck ourselves off of any rock we could find, go down these super narrow tree chutes. … It’s not about not being scared. It’s about not letting that define your actions.”
That fearlessness helped draw the attention of veterans like Lindsey Vonn.
“She never holds back. She always skis with aggression,” Vonn told The Associated Press in 2017.
Vonn, 40, in the midst of a comeback after retiring in 2019, finished 15th on Saturday, 1.96 second off Johnson’s winning time.
This story was originally published February 8, 2025 at 12:25 PM.
