{"id":464592,"date":"2026-02-12T17:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464592\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:34:12","slug":"gold-medalist-breezy-johnson-gets-engaged-days-after-her-olympics-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464592\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold medalist Breezy Johnson gets engaged days after her Olympics win"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Downhill champion Breezy Johnson<\/a> didn\u2019t add to her Olympic medal haul during the women\u2019s super-G on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The American star left Tofane with something precious anyway: an engagement ring.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s longtime boyfriend, Connor Watkins, proposed to her near the finish line while surrounded by members of the U.S. Ski Team.<\/p>\n

\"UnitedUnited States’ Breezy Johnson looks at the engagement ring she was given by Connor Watkins, at the finish area of an alpine ski, women’s super-G race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.(Andy Wong | AP Photo\/Andy Wong)<\/p>\n

Reciting lyrics from the Taylor Swift song \u201cAlchemy,\u201d Watkins slipped a ring of blue and white sapphires set in white gold on the ring finger of Johnson\u2019s left hand. She tearfully accepted, then turned the ring toward the sea of cameras to celebrate a dream that turned into reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt fitting to combine two of my loves,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a special place at the Olympics. I feel like there\u2019s a lot of mystique around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then added with a laugh, \u201cAlso you get free photography.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UnitedUnited States’ Breezy Johnson looks at the engagement ring she was given by Connor Watkins, at the finish area of an alpine ski, women’s super-G race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.(Andy Wong | AP Photo\/Andy Wong)<\/p>\n

The two met on a dating app a few years ago, with Watkins totally unaware that Johnson happened to be one of the best skiers on the planet. It wasn\u2019t until Watkins asked about 10 minutes into their first date (a brunch) that Johnson fessed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little taken aback,\u201d said Watkins who works in construction back in the U.S. \u201cI had very little knowledge of ski racing and everything else, and over the last couple of years I\u2019ve grown to really love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The joyful proposal came about an hour after Johnson\u2019s bid to reach the podium in the super-G<\/a> ended with a crash high in the course when her right pole clipped a gate and sent her tumbling into the catch fence. Johnson pulled herself to her feet and was unharmed.<\/p>\n

Down in the finish area with the ring in his pocket, Watkins briefly wondered if he might need switch to Plan B just in case the moment wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

Turns out, having Watkins there was exactly what Johnson needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was feeling kind of stupid, which I think is kind of the moment you want the people you love around you, like when you\u2019re just feeling dumb and childish,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018Tell me that I\u2019m OK.\u2019 Just seeing him, \u2018It\u2019s nice to see you,\u2019 and let\u2019s go commiserate together. And then, obviously, everything else happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something that took an already surreal stay in Cortina to another level entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think most people want to peak at the Olympics,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI just extra peaked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Downhill champion Breezy Johnson didn\u2019t add to her Olympic medal haul during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,214241,87374,41593,54097,41969,87371,3,1082,29679,54638,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-464592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-breezy-johnson","tag-engaged","tag-engagement","tag-engagement-ring","tag-gold-medal","tag-lindsey-vonn","tag-news","tag-olympics","tag-proposal","tag-skiing","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}