- Title: Golden run and golden ring: Johnson’s Winter Olympics sparkle on all fronts
- Date: 17th February 2026
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) OLYMPIC DOWNHILL CHAMPION BREEZY JOHNSON SAYING: ''Yes, this is the medal that broke. This is the original. It broke before I even left the finish. And then they gave me a new medal. So, and they were like, you got to go get that engraved. And then a few days later, they were like, we actually fixed the old medal. If you bring the replacement meda
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: ALPINE SKI MILANO CORTINA OLYMPIC DOWNHILL CHAMPION BREEZY JOHNSON WINTER OLYMPICS
- Location: MILAN, CORTINA D'AMPEZZO AND TREVISO, ITALY / GRAPHIC
- City: MILAN, CORTINA D'AMPEZZO AND TREVISO, ITALY / GRAPHIC
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Europe,Olympics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA003624317022026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson said on Tuesday (February 17) that she knew she had delivered one of her best runs long before seeing the time that secured her gold medal at the Milano Cortina Games.
“In ski racing, you don’t know that you have the winning time until the end,” Johnson said. ‘’I saw the time and thought it might be enough for a gold medal. It seemed like it was for sure enough for a medal, and that was really exciting to me.”
These Olympics will remain unforgettable for Johnson, not only because of the gold medal, but also thanks to the marriage proposal she received from her boyfriend.
The American skier's boyfriend Connor Watkins went down on one knee in the snow at the finish area to make the proposal and present the sapphire and gold ring.
‘’I had said that I had always had a dream of getting engaged at the Olympics. And my fiancé, Connor, did a lot of work behind the scenes to make it happen. I think we had kind of talked about doing it kind of at the end after everything was over. And it definitely became a lot bigger than I expected’’, Johnson said.
Watkins, who described himself as a poet working in the construction industry, said he had been planning for about a year and had needed a little help from the U.S. ski team and governing FIS to make it happen.
‘’To be able to share that with the world and the way that it grew legs and people loved it, was really cool’’, she said.
(Production: Leonardo Benassatto, Oriana Boselli, Jenna Zucker) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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