‘The Old Breezy’ St Anton 2021: GEPA pictures
With a podium at her last St. Anton downhill, the Wyoming racer wants to return to ‘the old Breezy’
Breezy Johnson is making a different sort of comeback than she’s had to make in the past. After being suspended all last season for a USADA doping whereabouts violation, the 29-year-old U.S. downhill star is fighting her way from the backfield.
“It’s not like coming back from injury,” Johnson said of the 14-month sanction, which took her by surprise. “With all my injuries, I always watched the World Cup tour. Last year I couldn’t. There was just too much frustration.”
The ban backstory
As for the violation, Johnson failed to be located for out-of-competition testing three times between October 2022 and October 2023. She described her failure as “a human error,” explaining that the first violation was simply a matter of being “complacent” and the second two were due to confusion and miscommunication over her location—once when she was in Chile with poor internet service and another time when she thought she had communicated that she was in Park City, but the tester showed up to her house in Jackson.
“I understand what happened. I was imperfect. It’s also an imperfect system,” Johnson said. “Fundamentally, we shouldn’t have whereabouts failure bans. We should have doping bans, finding dopers, so we’re not putting innocent athletes through the ringer. In bad situations, though, you find the bright side.”
Time well spent
Although she found it emotionally difficult to keep tabs on World Cup action during her absence, Johnson made the most out of her year away from racing.
“I spent a lot of time with my friends outside of skiing,” she said. “I also did more freeskiing, skied more days at Jackson than I did the last 10 years. That was good. I hired my own coaches and tried to improve my technical skiing.”
Before the suspension for last season (2023-24), Johnson had completed her first season back from injury. She was ranked the world’s second-best female downhiller before blowing out her knee in January 2022, sidelining her for several months. After returning from injury, she bounced back impressively, landing a handful of top-10s in 2022-23. She was still working through pain, however, and felt she was finally physically ready to reach her potential before she was suspended.
Now that she’s had to wait a year to make that happen, Johnson is possibly more excited about rejoining her close-knit team than she is about winning.
‘Back with the tribe’
“I’m definitely grateful to be back with the team,” she said. “Winning is super fun, but winning alone doesn’t mean anything. The whole point is to bring something back to your tribe. When you’re blocked out from your tribe, it’s like, wait, why am I doing this?”
More than winning a World Cup title or Olympic medal, Johnson’s ultimate dream is a U.S. podium sweep.
“Skiing is more of a team sport than people give it credit for,” she said. “To be at the top of this sport with your best friends, it would be incredible. We’re closer every year to making that a reality.”
At the opening downhill race at Beaver Creek in December—Johnson’s first World Cup race since March 2023—the Wyoming native notched 13th place, starting 32nd. Her teammate Lauren Macuga finished fourth, less than two-tenths of a second off the podium. In the following day’s super-G, Johnson clinched more points, landing 28th despite starting 46th.
Ready to re-shine
“I come out with really late start numbers, so I’ve got to fix that up,” she said. “The other thing I need is some FIS points. But I feel like I’m skiing well, with good intensity. Being back has been great. The team has got some good momentum going. I know not everything I have was shown in the [Beaver Creek] downhill. I made some mistakes. But there’s more to come. St. Anton is a course I’ve skied before. I’ve done well there before. So yeah, hopefully I can get back to old Breezy.”
The last time Johnson raced in a World Cup downhill at St. Anton, she took third. The women’s World Cup returns to the venue this weekend for the downhill on Saturday, Jan. 11, and super-G on Sunday.
About the Author: Shauna Farnell
