American skier Breezy Johnson told CBS News that she is treating her replacement gold medal carefully after the original medal, which she won in the women’s downhill at the incident-ridden 2026 Winter Games on Saturday in Italy, broke down.
“I think because they were so heavy, the ribbons couldn’t really hold them up,” Johnson said, calling it “a little disappointing” that Olympic medallists had to be careful about celebrating too enthusiastically because “that’s all anybody wants to do.”
Johnson said she was initially told she would not get her original medal back, but it has been repaired, and she plans to keep it and trade in a replacement. She also plans to knit a special pouch to keep it safe.
“I’m an avid knitter,” Johnson told CBS News correspondent Seth Doane on Wednesday. “I knit a new hat or headband for every caste. It’s a big superstition of mine.”
She wears the hand-knitted race gear only once for her respective race, after which it is retired.
“They’re piling up in my bag, but I’ve been wanting for a long time to auction some of them off and have people buy them and donate the proceeds to charity,” she said. “I have no further dealings with them.”
Johnson dedicated the gold medal to his father.
“He found out he could never ski again,” she told CBS News. “You know, he taught me how to ski. I thought the best thing I could do was try to ski as fast as I could.”
When asked his thoughts on representing the United States political debate around the Games, Johnson refused to go down that slope.
“There’s been a lot of rhetoric. I prefer to focus on my skiing. I don’t personally know anyone who has changed their political affiliation because of something a celebrity or person has said. So, I prefer to focus on my skiing and donating the money I make to charities that I feel are really doing work that I support.”
Despite winning the first Gold Medal for Team USA in Italy, the Milano-Cortina Winter Games have not been a complete success story for Johnson.
She failed to make the podium in the team slalom event on Tuesday after skiing with her partner, Mikaela Shiffrin. Following the race, Johnson engaged in a seemingly motivational conversation with Shiffrin.
“I said, ‘I know you tried your best and everything will be OK,'” Johnson told CBS News during a private conversation. “I don’t like to say anything against anybody because I know this game. There are a lot of changes, and there were changes yesterday too. They weren’t necessarily in our favour, and we went out and we both gave it our all, and it didn’t happen, but that’s OK.”
Johnson said she is generally very good at handling the pressure of competing at the highest level of her sport – and she understands that such competition and such extreme speed come with extreme danger.
After Team USA’s Lindsey Vonn was injured in a fall in Saturday’s downhill race, which Johnson won, she said her 41-year-old world champion teammate had texted her.
“He said, ‘Congratulations,'” Johnson said. “You know, I know what she’s going through is tough, and I think she’s going through a lot. So, we haven’t talked on the phone or anything, but I wish her the best.”
Johnson said she also understands what Vonn went through to compete at these Games just one week after suffering an ACL tear.
He said, “The thing that breaks your heart is that you’re used to defying the odds. You’re used to writing fairy-tale endings. And the reality is that those things get made into movies because they’re so unlikely. And unfortunately, you can’t always do that – it’s not always like movies.”
“It’s hard to understand what motivates people to do this, but when you’re doing it well, it’s a pretty incredible feeling,” Johnson said. He described the sport of downhill as “competitive” and said that spectators can participate in the rush.
“Fifty miles an hour, nothing to protect you except spandex, and the combination of huge blades on your legs, which people sometimes forget,” she said. “It’s like Formula One with giant knives on ice; who doesn’t want to see that?”
