It hasn’t been a smooth journey to Olympic gold for 2026 Olympic women’s downhill champion Breezy Johnson.
The American star edged Emma Aicher of Germany by a razor-thin margin of 0.04 seconds on Sunday, Feb. 8, just a little over a year after returning from 14-month suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
Johnson − who finished seventh in the downhill in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, but didn’t qualify for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing − was banned from competition starting on Oct. 10, 2023, for three separate violations of drug testing protocol over a 12-month period.
USADA policy requires an athlete to inform anti-doping authorities where they will be for at least one hour every day for unannounced out-of-competition testing. The punishment for violations can range from one to two years.
Johnson’s suspension was announced on May 13, 2024, with all of her competition results and prize money forfeited dating back to the previous October when her third violation occurred.
She missed all of the 2024 World Cup season, returning last year to take gold in the downhill at the World Championships − making her one of the favorites heading to Cortina.
