Breezy Johnson finishes Olympics with more new hardware as she gets engaged after final race

Olympic skier Breezy Johnson has added a diamond to her gold medal to wrap up her time at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

After winning the Olympic women’s downhill title in Cortina d’Ampezzo Sunday, the Team USA Olympian crashed out during her final event — Thursday’s super G-race — as she caught her right pole on a gate and slammed into the fencing.

However, a different jewelry item was waiting for her at the finish line as her boyfriend, Connor Watkins, surprised her with a proposal, which Johnson tearfully accepted.

The engagement ring had a blue stone with a silver band, and was presented in a ring box with a Taylor Swift lyric engraved on the back, reading, “Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?”

Despite being one of a dozen racers in the event who either crashed out or skied off the course, Johnson said in an interview with Today that she felt “stupid” about her mistake.

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“When you make mistakes like that in ski racing you kind of feel stupid and you just kind of want to go talk to your friends and family. And, yeah, seeing him [Watkins] was really exciting. And then just everything else is crazy,” she said.

Watkins also spoke to the outlet, saying how nervous he was to pop the question, especially not knowing how the race was going to fare for Johnson.

“It’s an incredibly surreal experience,” he said. “I’d been really nervous. Every time she goes down the hill, I’m nervous, right? … She got up after the crash. It was good, and that was a sigh of relief. And then my heart started racing again, because I knew I was about to go and get down on my own knee and propose.”

Johnson’s engagement comes a few days after she took home the gold medal in the women’s downhill, after her teammate Lindsey Vonn crashed.

Vonn was the 13th of 36 racers to take to the Cortina d’Ampezzo course, where she has won a record 12 World Cups. She crashed hard in the top section of the course after overshooting a turn and catching her shoulder on the fourth gate, having already picked up significant speed. That set her off balance, with her injured left leg — in which she tore her ACL during a training run in the days leading up to the Olympics — giving way.

Medics attended to her shortly after, and she was put on a stretcher and airlifted to the hospital while the competition was paused. It eventually resumed around 20 minutes later.

Johnson, a friend of Vonn’s, was emotional throughout the second half of the race, with her victory overshadowed by the 41-year-old’s serious crash.

She said afterwards: “My heart aches for her. It’s a tough road, and it’s a tough sport. That’s the beauty and the madness of it, that it can hurt you so badly but you keep coming back for more.”