Not even an injury can keep Mikaela Shiffrin from dominating! On February 11, the American ski queen teamed up with her longtime friend Breezy Johnson to win gold in the team combined event at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Saalbach, Austria. This win? Oh, just her record-tying 15th world championship medal—no big deal. Meanwhile, Johnson became a double world champion, proving that childhood dreams (and ski buddies) do pay off.
Their performance was nothing short of spectacular. Johnson crushed the downhill, clocking the fourth-best time, while Shiffrin, cool as ever, raced to the third-fastest slalom time. Their combined effort edged out Swiss superstars Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener by 0.39 seconds—which in skiing is the time it takes to blink. Austria’s Stephanie Venier and Katharina Truppe took bronze, but this was Mikaela and Breezy’s moment. “If you would have told us when we met that we would team up to win a world championship medal, I think neither of us would have believed it,” Johnson said.
Shiffrin, reflecting on their journey, admitted how wild it was to see everything come full circle. “So many things had to happen since we were 11. We even needed a new event entirely for this to be possible,” she laughed. She also gave props to her teammate, saying, “It was nerve-racking because Breezy did her job spectacularly this morning. It was so much fun to watch her execute, day in and day out.” Basically, Breezy brought the heat, and Mikaela closed the deal—just another day for this dynamic duo.
As for Shiffrin’s insane medal count, Johnson couldn’t resist cracking a joke. “If we keep adding team events, maybe we can get 32 for her or something!” she quipped. Then, turning serious for a moment, she added, “She is a legend. It’s super cool to be hitting my stride, and she’s obviously been on hers for a decade.“
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