MILAN — Four days after Breezy Johnson’s Winter Olympics began with skiing’s downhill gold medal, the American star added a new piece of jewelry.
An engagement ring.
Johnson’s boyfriend, Connor Watkins, proposed at the base of the super-G run in Cortina D’Ampezzo on Thursday and Johnson tearfully accepted.
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Wearing a USA jacket, Watkins dropped to a knee in the finish area surrounded by skiers and competitors from other countries, and raised a silver ring with a blue gem at its center. Johnson put a hand to her sunglasses while becoming visibly emotional. After saying yes, Watkins stood and kissed Johnson as U.S. teammates and officials cheered.
Along with the ring, Watkins gave Johnson a piece of wood on which was carved, “Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?” — lyrics from Taylor Swift’s “The Alchemy.”
Did Johnson ever dream of getting engaged at the same Olympics where she had also won a gold medal?
“I mean, that was my hope!” she told NBC’s Cara Banks. “But it’s definitely a lot more crazy with everything just happening all at once, and the reality of it is so different than the way you imagined, and so much better.”
Breezy Johnson’s engagement ring.NBC News
Watkins was “really hoping that I could get in the finish area and do it the way I wanted. And it turned out we could, and we’re just super excited.”
The couple said they planned to spend Thursday celebrating with family and friends in Cortina and hoped to make a getaway to Livigno, the site of other Olympic competitions.
The engagement came on a day of mixed emotions for Johnson. More than an hour before Watkins proposed, Johnson, 30, crashed during the super-G final. She was one of more than a dozen skiers who did not finish after either crashing or skiing off the course.
In 2022, Johnson came out as bisexual, posting on social media that she “wanted to be open about who I am.”
Watkins has cheered on Johnson from Cortina, including being in the stands for her gold medal Sunday in the women’s downhill, when Johnson joined Lindsey Vonn, in 2010, as the only American woman to win the event.
Johnson missed out on a second medal in the team combined event on Tuesday. Though she finished first in the downhill portion, her teammate Mikaela Shiffrin struggled in the slalom and they finished fourth.
