The 15-year friendship just got solidified through their unified efforts at the FIS Alpine World Championships.

Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won the gold medal in the new team combined event at the Alpine skiing world championships, giving Shiffrin another major accolade in just her second race back from a two-month absence and extending a career-best week for Johnson.

Just days after winning her first-ever FIS World Championships race in Saalbach, Austria — the fourth American woman ever to do so in the downhill — Teton County ski racer

The Jackson Hole, Wyoming, native was on the verge of victory when she recorded three second-place World Cup results over a one-year period ending in December 2021. Then a crash a month later ruled her out of the 2022 Beijing Olympics with a knee injury.

Breezy Johnson is the fourth American woman to win the downhill at the World Alpine Skiing Championships, marking the first major victory of her career. Johnson, the first racer, put down a time and then waited in the finish area for more than an hour to see if anybody would beat it. No one did.

Breezy Johnson won women's downhill gold for the United States, after going first out of the start hut and setting an unbeatable pace, at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach on Saturday.

Breezy Johnson had never won a major race before Saturday's breakthrough, one year to the day until the 2026 Olympic downhill race.

Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin's win in the team combined is second gold and third medal for US at world championships

Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson have won gold in the new team combined event at the Alpine skiing world championships.

US skiers Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson win gold in the team combined event at the Alpine world championships.

Breezy Johnson earned her first top-level victory and became the first American woman to win a world downhill title since Lindsey Vonn in 2009. Courtesy