Meet the Athletes: Breezy Johnson – NBC Olympics

What is your hometown and how has it shaped you?Well of course growing up skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, deeply influenced me a racer. We used to take the bus from school to the town hill to ski three days of the week. Then we skied at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort on the weekends, ripping around like Tasmanian devils. The support of the mountain resort to not limit our ability to ski crazy things and not to police our speed more than was necessary was deeply influential in my skiing. I still attribute many of my skills as a speed skier to the many facets of Jackson Resort and being free to ski them with my friends on Saturdays.

Jackson is also an incredible outdoor place. We have two major National Parks and tons of National Forest and Wilderness. I grew up hiking and exploring this outdoor space and that has carried into my love for adventure and the outdoors as an adult. Exploring new places is something I deeply love about my job. And I think my sense of adventure was created by this amazing place.

Whats your favorite workout?I always love a fun cardio workout where I adventure to a fun place. Like a run last summer where we jogged 20 miles to a hot spring. But we also do really hard strength endurance workouts in the fall. They aren't fun but they do make you feel very accomplished afterwards.

What is your earliest memory of the Olympics?I remember watching the Olympics in Salt Lake City on TV and wanting to go and watch it. I remember working out in my brain that I should work on making the Vancouver Games (somehow the math worked better in my brain back then). I also remember watching Lindsey [Vonn] and Julia [Mancuso] go 1-2 in Vancouver and thinking how amazing that would be to represent your team and to be able to do that with your friends.

Who do you socialize most with in your sport?My best friend is Avital (Shimko) Carroll. She is on the U.S. moguls team and is trying to make the Olympic team in moguls. We met while we were rehabbing and finally both made it back to competition.

I am also good friends with Mikaela Shiffrin. She and I get along well both because we have similar outlooks and work ethic. We also have known each other since we were 12 and the Shiffrin family played a major role in developing me athletically and helping me hone in on how to go forwarding the sport.

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Meet the Athletes: Breezy Johnson - NBC Olympics