She breezed to 7th at the Olympics, but an ACL tear will slow down this WWU student

There was never a pop, any searing pain or signs of swelling in U.S. downhill ski racer Breezy Johnson’s right knee. She even took a few more runs after her recent crash while training in Chile.

That’s what made the diagnosis so difficult to process: Torn ACL. Season over.

Johnson had a list of goals this season , too. Among them on the heels of finishing seventh in the downhill at the Pyeongchang Olympics last February: Earn her first World Cup win. A top-five finish at the world championships in Are, Sweden. Relish hanging out with Lindsey Vonn as the winningest female World Cup ski racer (82 victories) chases after Ingemar Stenmark’s record (86) in what figures to be Vonn’s final season. Maybe even share a podium with Vonn.

After receiving the news, Johnson spent nearly an hour in the doctor’s office by herself — just thinking. The racer who grew up in Idaho and is attending Western Washington University during the spring quarter when she’s not on the slopes doesn’t have a date for surgery just yet.