Promise and peril for the U.S. women’s ski team in Milan

Photo courtesy of Stefan Brending/ Wikimedia Commons

Four years after a devastating crash in Cortina ended her Olympic dreams, Breezy Johnson returned to the very same course to capture downhill gold—earning Team USA’s first gold of the 2026 Winter Games.

Every major sporting event brings its own historic storylines. Last week, we looked at the most notable moments leading up to the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Now that the Games are officially underway, here are some of the standout moments so far—particularly in the women’s skiing events.

On Feb. 8, American alpine skier Breezy Johnson won gold in the women’s downhill race, marking the first gold medal in her career and the first gold medal awarded to the United States in the Games. This victory was especially meaningful for Johnson, who was set to compete in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing before a training crash left her with a serious knee injury and forced her to withdraw. In a striking twist of fate, that crash occurred at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina—the very same place where she stood atop a podium four years later.

Johnson spoke on the return to the course and her win, saying, “I think part of what hurt the most in 2022 was that I did love this course…Sometimes the things you love can hurt you the most. Just because it's beautiful doesn't mean that it can also hurt. It means that you have to go and make that possible. And so taking ownership of that is what I've been trying to do for the last four years. Today it paid off.”

Johnson became the second American woman in alpine skiing history to win Olympic downhill gold, the first being Lindsey Vonn at the Vancouver Games in 2010. Speaking of Lindsey Vonn, she tore her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in a recent injury sustained before the start of the games, but assured fans she was still going to compete. 

On Feb. 8, Vonn crashed about 13 seconds into her downhill run and had to be airlifted off the course. Vonn’s crash actually had nothing to do with her torn ACL; she had hooked the fourth gate with her right arm, throwing her off-balance. She fought to regain control, but to no avail. Her legs had already splayed, her body weight had shifted to the back of her skis, and she fell to the right, crashing headfirst into the snow. The three-time Olympic medalist remained vulnerable and in pain on the course for 13 minutes before being loaded into a helicopter.

Teammate Keely Cashman spoke to the media, saying, “People that don’t know ski racing don’t really understand what happened yesterday. She hooked her arm on the gate, which twisted her around. She was going probably 70 miles an hour, and so that twists your body around. That has nothing to do with her ACL, nothing to with her knee. I think a lot of people are ridiculing that, and a lot people don’t (know) what’s going on.”

British journalist Dan Walker took to social media on Feb. 9, sharing his thoughts on Vonn’s devastating crash, and received a thank you from Vonn, saying, “This is what sport looks like when you strip away the polish. It's not comfortable…it's painful…Risk instead of safety. Vonn knew she might not win. She knew it might hurt. She understood the risk. She embraced it because not going down that mountain would mean surrendering to the things that stop you getting out of bed in the morning.”

The United States was expected to medal with Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin as the heavy favorites, but it was actually Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan who took the bronze in the women’s alpine skiing combined downhill and slalom event. Shiffrin put up the 15th fastest time in the slalom event, and has not won a gold medal since winning in the giant slalom event in 2018 in South Korea. 

Overall, the first days of competition have highlighted both the promise and peril of women’s alpine skiing. The U.S. team has shown remarkable depth, resilience, and competitiveness, even when the outcome has not aligned with expectations. As these Games continue, it will be exciting to see how the American women build on their early performances and what unforgettable moments are still to come.