Alpine Skiing - FIS Alpine World Ski Championships - Women's Downhill - Saalbach, Austria - February 8, 2025 Breezy Johnson of the U.S. reacts REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
SAALBACH, Austria (Reuters) -Breezy Johnson won women's downhill gold for the United States, setting an unbeatable pace after going first out of the start hut, at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach on Saturday.
The medal was the first in a major event for the 29-year-old, who returned last December from a 14-month ban for three anti-doping whereabouts failures and has had a career punctuated by injury.
Austria's Mirjam Puchner took silver on home snow, 0.15 seconds slower than Johnson, and Czech Ester Ledecka the bronze a further 0.06 behind.
Johnson completed her run in one minute 41.29 seconds and watched for an hour as a string of rivals, some of the biggest names in the sport with a long list of medals and wins, failed to match the time.
Tears then flowed as she celebrated becoming the first American downhill world champion since Lindsey Vonn at Val d'Isere in 2009.
"It’s a little bit nerve-racking to sit in the leader’s chair but it’s way harder to sit there at the top waiting for your run," Johnson told NBC Sports television. "I was definitely grateful to run number one."
Vonn, the 2010 Olympic champion making a championships comeback at the age of 40 after retiring in 2019, started 21st and ended up 15th and ahead of Italy's 2018 Olympic gold medallist Sofia Goggia, who had a fall in final training on Friday.
Nursing a cold, Vonn had failed to finish Thursday's super-G after hitting a gate but she was there to congratulate Johnson on Saturday as was team mate Lauren Macuga, who finished a strong fifth after taking super-G bronze on Thursday.
"I knew it wasn't a perfect run but I knew it was good," said Johnson, who missed the 2018-19 season and 2022 Beijing Olympics through injury.
"Then when I came across the line and I saw it was a low 41, I was like 'amazing'."
Johnson has yet to win a World Cup race, with a best result of second and no podium since 2021, but had set out her stall with the second-fastest times in two of this week's training runs.
"It's a privilege to be able to play the game, to be able to be here," she told Eurosport of her return to competition and pre-event nerves.
"When you know that going in (to the race), you kind of have a little bit of freedom because you know that no matter what happens you've got a chance to try."
The Wyoming-born racer is the fourth U.S. female skier to win downhill gold at a world championships. Before Vonn, Hilary Lindh was champion in 1997 and Picabo Street in 1996. On the men's side, Bode Miller was champion in 2005.
There was disappointment for Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami, the reigning Olympic super-G champion, who almost fell and failed to set a time.
Italian hopes were also dashed, with Goggia 16th and Federica Brignone, second in the super-G, only 10th. Austria's Stephanie Venier, the super-G gold medallist, was ninth.
The men's downhill is next up on Sunday.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London. Editing by Mark Potter and Clare Fallon)
