Breezy Johnson opened up about the takeaways from the team combined event, which she and Mikaela Shiffrin competed in but failed to finish on the podium. Johnson was fresh off her monumental downhill win, bringing Team USA’s first gold medal at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Johnson and Shiffrin have been shining in their respective events, and the latter entered her first-ever women’s team combined event at the Games, but it didn’t turn out as she’d hoped.
Breezy Johnson Highlights the Key Takeaways from the Team’s Combined Setback at the Milan-Cortina Olympics
Johnson and Shiffrin previously paired up for the team combined event in the 2025 World Championships. The latter was coming off some tough weeks of recovery after her Killington giant slalom crash, but the duo emerged victorious with flying colors after Shiffrin dominated slalom and Johnson streamrolled the downhill.
At the 2026 Winter Games, the pair reunited for the same event but failed to achieve the desired result. It marked the most decorated skier’s first appearance in a team combined event, as she looked to make a strong start to her campaign.
However, she posted only the fourth-slowest time in the slalom, while her partner topped the downhill standings. Their combined time of 2:21.97 left them just 0.06 seconds short of a podium finish.
In a later Instagram post, Johnson shared an uplifting message, emphasizing that if one doesn’t win, one learns, and that was their takeaway from February 10. She added that while the fourth-place finish may have hit them hard, it would not end their journey to become better skiers and better people, and to overcome every challenge along the way.
“So we are going to hold our chins high, because going out there, giving it everything, when the sport is so challenging…that is how we win, and we are both going to go do more of that,” she added.
Further, Johnson congratulated Paula Moltzan and Jackie Wiles on their bronze-medal finish. Stressing Team USA’s dominance, she said emphatically:
“We firmly believe rising tides lift all ships. And everyone better watch out because the water is high on this team, and we are just getting started.”
Johnson suffered a back injury weeks before she took the slopes for the 2025-26 season. Despite that, she added her first Super-G podium under her belt, achieving it in Crans-Montana. On the other hand, Shiffrin continued to make history as the unfathomable slalom athlete, taking her total World Cup win tally to 108, and being the frontrunner for the overall Globe.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was sidelined for 11 weeks in the 2024-25 season after crashing in a Super-G race and suffering a puncture wound in her abdomen.
