Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy — U.S. downhill snowboarding champion Breezy Johnson, already the proprietor of 1 2026 Winter Olympics gold medal, crashed out of competition within the ladies’s Tremendous-G race on Thursday in Italy. Her proper pole caught a gate shortly after she exited the speed-building chute on the course and he or she misplaced her stability, ending up within the catch fence.
She was capable of get to her ft after the crash and make it down the mountain, the place her boyfriend Connor Watkins pulled out a silver-colored ring, dropped to a knee, and requested her to marry him. Video shared by Johnson on social media confirmed them kissing after she accepted his proposal.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Crew posted a pair messages on social media confirming the pair’s engagement and providing its “large congrats to Breezy and Connor.”
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Johnson gained gold within the ladies’s downhill occasion on Saturday — her first medal of the 2026 Video games and the primary for Crew USA general. Her medal then broke, coming aside from its ribbon as she celebrated. Johnson informed CBS Information’ Seth Doane she was taking particular care of her alternative medal whereas her authentic was below restore — and he or she supposed to knit a devoted pouch to maintain her medal protected as soon as returned.
The race was gained by Italian skier Federica Brignone, finishing her lengthy, painful climb again to the highest of the game. The 35-year-old earned the primary Olympic gold medal of her adorned profession on Thursday, lower than a 12 months after breaking a number of bones in her left leg, which resulted in two surgical procedures and months of rehab.
Brignone navigated the difficult technical Trofane course in 1:23.41 minutes for the win.
Johnson was hardly the one one who bumped into bother. Italy’s Sofia Goggia, presently atop the World Cup season standings within the super-G, together with 2018 Olympic gold medalist Ester Ledecka of Czechia and American Mary Bocock, who entered the race after U.S. star Lindsey Vonn severely injured her left leg within the downhill on Sunday, had been all unable to make it down safely.
Racing in foggy situations in flat gentle that may make the nuances of the course tough to navigate, and with IOC President Kirsty Coventry and Italy President Sergio Mattarella close to the end beneath, Brignone triumphantly raised her poles after crossing the road.
Brignone’s victory made her the oldest feminine gold medalist in ladies’s alpine. The gold can be her fourth Olympic medal. Brignone claimed silver within the super-G and bronze within the workforce occasion in Beijing 4 years in the past. She additionally earned bronze within the super-G in Pyeongchang in 2018. Brignone’s 4 medals below the rings now match Deborah Compagnoni for many by an Italian ladies’s skier.
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Brignone was certainly one of 4 flag bearers for Italy in the course of the opening ceremonies. At one level, nonetheless bothered by the ache in her left leg almost 10 months after her terrifying crash in Val di Fassa, Brignone requested roller Amos Mosaner to hold her on his shoulders. Mosaner obliged, leaving Brignone free to wave the flag.
The acquainted mixture of crimson, white and inexperienced was seen throughout a large swath of stands on Thursday when Brignone completed, as a crowd emboldened by the early success of the host nation roared on the 2026 Video games roared its approval.
“Congrats Fede,” Vonn tweeted from the hospital the place she’s recovering from her crash. “What an unimaginable comeback!!”
