AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's a bittersweet day for Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy. Breezy Johnson won the women's downhill race and the first medal of any kind for the U.S. so far. But Johnson's teammate Lindsey Vonn crashed violently in the downhill, ending her dream of a comeback. NPR's Becky Sullivan was on the racecourse and joins us now from Cortina. Welcome.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Hey there.
RASCOE: So, Becky, we want to hear about Breezy Johnson's victory.
SULLIVAN: Of course.
RASCOE: But first, tell us what happened to Lindsey Vonn.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. I mean, this was honestly one of the most devastating sports moments I've ever witnessed. Lindsey, you know, as many people know, is the 41-year-old skiing superstar for team USA. She had actually retired due to knee injuries back in 2019. But she got a knee replacement in 2024 and had made this, like, amazing comeback. She was at the top of her game this season, the ski season. Then she tore her ACL about nine days ago and decided to compete today anyway. That's how much competing in this Olympic Games here in Cortina meant to her.
So she was going to race with a knee brace, but then 13 seconds into her downhill run, her right arm and shoulder sort of clipped one of the gates on the downhill course, and it caused her body to sort of spin into the air and crash very hard onto the snow. She had to have medics come get her off the slope. There was a wait of about 15 minutes while the medics tended to her, and a helicopter came to airlift her off the course, just while everybody in the grandstand was totally silent. I should say, it's not immediately clear what the extent of her injuries is. She's expected to put out a statement maybe later today.
RASCOE: And so as bad as Vonn's crash was, it sounds like everything went right, though, today for Breezy Johnson.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. Exactly. It did. You know, Breezy - she is a 30-year-old skier. And she herself had made this amazing comeback over the last four years because just before the 2022 games in Beijing, which she had qualified for, she suffered some knee injuries of her own, including a really bad crash, actually, on a training ground here at Cortina. And so she ended up having to sit out the Winter Games. And then later, she also had to serve a 14-month-long suspension for failing to appear for three mandated drug tests. So that suspension ended in 2024. She finally got back to competition after that, and she has been great this season, too.
And then today, she was remarkable. I mean, downhill skiing is always a place where you have to push the limits, take risks, and it really looked like that. You could see that in Breezy's run, but she hung on to everything that she needed to. And when she crossed the finish line, she told us afterward, she really felt like she'd had a shot at a medal. And sure enough, you know, when you enter in first place in a skiing race, you sit in the leaders chair, and you have to watch all the other skiers come down. One other skier got very close, a woman from Germany. Breezy's face was shocked as she watched the German competitor cross the finish line, but her time ended up winning. And so she's won her first gold medal.
RASCOE: So what's next for America's Alpine racing team in the Olympics?
SULLIVAN: Well, for the women's team, there's a huge event coming up just in a couple days on Tuesday. It's called the team combined. What that event is, is you have one skier race the downhill, and another skier races the slalom. And so, you know, typically skiers have a specialty, either the speed events like the downhill or the technical events like the slalom. And so this is a chance to get two different skiers racing on a team together. It's expected to be the first appearance of the Winter Games for the other huge team USA skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin, who is amazing at the slalom. Those teams are expected to be announced tomorrow - Monday. And we'll get to come back right here to the ski course here in Cortina and see them participate. The U.S. should have a really, really strong chance at a medal in that one.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Becky Sullivan in Cortina, Italy. Thank you so much.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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