Breezy Johnson crashed out of her final race at the Winter Olympics on Thursday but she still ended up with gold. The 30-year-old American skier said yes to boyfriend Connor Watkins, who proposed in the snow at the finish area. Johnson, who won gold in the women's downhill in Cortina five days ago, exited the course through the finish line after she crashed around 20 seconds into her women's Super-G run and failed to finish, People reports. Moments later, Watkins got down on one knee, gold and sapphire ring in hand, along with a wooden plaque etched with a line from Taylor Swift's "The Alchemy": "Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy."
Johnson, tearful, accepted as the crowd cheered. Watkins later told NBC News he'd been planning the proposal for a year and that the moment had "gone above and beyond our wildest imagination." Johnson said she "may have told him that I just always kind of had the dream of getting engaged at the Olympics." "It felt fitting to combine two of my loves," she said. "It's a special place at the Olympics. I feel like there's a lot of mystique around it." She quipped, "Also you get free photography."
- The AP reports that the couple met on a dating app a few years ago, with Watkins, who works in construction in the US, unaware that she was one of the world's best skiers before their first date. "I was a little taken aback," he says. "I had very little knowledge of ski racing and everything else, and over the last couple of years I've grown to really love it."
Johnson's Cortina run has been a redemption arc: a downhill gold came on the same course where a crash sidelined her from the 2022 Beijing Games, followed by a strong but ultimately off-podium performance in the team combined, People reports. Now, she and Watkins plan to celebrate with family and friends before taking in more events at the 2026 Games.
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