US skier Breezy Johnson wins gold in the women's downhill at the Alpine world championships

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria — Breezy Johnson crowned her comeback season to skiing after a 14-month suspension with a gold medal on Saturday, winning the downhill at the Alpine world championships.

The American finished 0.15 seconds ahead of silver medalist Mirjam Puchner of Austria. Czech skier Ester Ledecka came 0.21 behind in third to take bronze.

It's Johnson first medal from a major event and came two months after she returned from a ban for three ''whereabouts'' violations of anti-doping rules.

''I was thinking about it this morning and I was like, it's a privilege to be able to play the game, to be able to be here,'' Johnson said. ''When you know that, going in, you have a little bit of freedom, because no matter what happens, you've got the chance to try.''

Lauren Macuga, who has had a breakout World Cup season and led her teammate Johnson after two splits, came 0.38 behind in fifth, while Lindsey Vonn trailed by 1.96 seconds in 15th.

Vonn smiled after finishing and waved and blew a kiss to the spectators, then hugged Johnson in the leader seat.

The first starter, Johnson led the race from start to finish, mainly thanks to a near-perfect second half of her run, where she posted the fastest split times in three of the four sections.

Even with no competitor's time to compare to, Johnson pumped her first when she completed her run.

"I knew I made some mistakes, but I also knew that I charged and gave everything I could," the 29-year-old Johnson said. ''So, I knew it wasn't the perfect run but I knew it was good and then, when I came across the line and saw it was a low 41, I was like, maybe...''

Her triumph followed a night with not much sleep.

''I was up at 4 a.m. and just kind of couldn't sleep anymore. I just kind of laid in bed and was just trying to rest a little bit,'' Johnson said. ''But I guess ... when I get nervous, I'm like you're only nervous because you have a shot at this.''

Johnson has yet to win a World Cup race. The Jackson, Wyoming native has seven podium results, but none since December 2021.

She missed the 2018-19 season with a knee injury, then sat out the 2022 Olympics with another injury.

Vonn retired in 2019 after winning bronze in downhill in Are, Sweden, following several injuries, but returned to the circuit this season with a new titanium right knee.

The American standout said in an AP interview she planned to retire again after the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. Saturday's race took place exactly one year before the women's downhill at the Winter Games.

Racing in perfect sunny conditions and under crisp blue skies, the fastest skiers approached the Ulli Maier jump, key part of the course, with speeds of up to 140 kph (87 mph) and flew around 35 meters.

The course is not a regular stop on the women's circuit, but athletes who qualified for last season World Cup finals had raced on it before. Vonn also did, in two downhills in 2002.

Puchner raced to silver after she had to win an team-internal qualification this week to even make the four-racer Austrian squad for the downhill.

''The qualification felt very good, I always had fun and that's the most important thing,'' Puchner said. ''In the last races, there were other athletes great, not me, so I was really far away from a podium.''

Ledecka clocked the fastest first-split time but couldn't match Johnson's pace later in her run.

''I screwed up some things, but overall, I think it was a very nice run, it was the fastest run I did on this hill,'' said the Czech, who famously won Olympic gold in super-G as well as in snowboarding at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Many of the pre-race favorites failed to live up to their billing.

Overall World Cup leader Federica Brignone, who won her first two career downhills this season, placed 10th, and her Italian teammate Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion, finished one-hundredth of a second behind Vonn in 16th, a day after she had crash but escaped injuries in the final training session.

Lara Gut-Behrami lost her balance entering a right turn but the Swiss star avoided falling and missed the next gate, two days after she hooked a gate and finished eighth in the super-G, which was won by Austria's Stephanie Venier.

The worlds continue with the men's downhill on Sunday.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing