Olympic gold medal skier Breezy Johnson won white gold at the end of her 2026 Milano Cortina super-G race: an engagement ring from her partner, Connor Watkins. “Now I can’t be like, ‘Was my favorite week of my life when I got engaged or when I won the Olympics?’” Breezy Johnson jokes to Vogue a few hours after their engagement. “We just combined the two greatest moments.”
Breezy and Connor first connected two-and-a-half years ago in Utah, via Bumble. “I would say our timeline really fits in well with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce,” laughs Breezy, a self-professed Swiftie. At the time, the skier was living in Park City, while the construction project manager was based in Salt Lake City. Connor noted his love of singer Noah Kahan on his profile, and Breezy opened by sharing she just saw him perform at a private event. “I thought, Well, that’s pretty cool,” says Connor. When the two met for a first date at a brunch spot, Connor had no idea that he was about to meet an Olympic athlete. He remembers, “We started talking about me at first, and when I switched over to her, and I was like, ‘So what do you do?’” She casually stated that she skied. “People get kind of thrown on the back when you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m an Olympic skier.’ So I think I just started out small,” Breezy explains. Connor adds: “I just told myself to keep cool.”
A few weeks after the two started seeing each other, Breezy had to leave for three weeks of training. “I feel like that was kind of my first inclination that it was gonna work,” she shares. “I’m not always the most organized person, and he was very good about texting me and checking in with me. That was reassuring. Like, my room is a complete mess right now, and he’s organized. He definitely complements me in many ways.”
The couple’s relationship grew as they went through some difficult times together, including Breezy’s 14-month suspension from racing in 2023. “That was somewhat early in when we were dating and was a lot to deal with,” says the skier. “I felt like if we could get through that, we could get through a lot.”
“There was a silver lining to it,” Connor adds. “It did allow us to be together and build a nice space for us.”
In April 2024, Breezy and Connor officially moved in together in Salt Lake City, where they now live with their two cats, Wolfie and Apricot. The move coincided with the release of Taylor Swift’s song “The Alchemy,” which felt especially meaningful for the pair. The song has many sports allusions (likely inspired by Kelce) and metaphors about what the prize truly is—the gold trophy, or the person in the stands. “You get to a point as an athlete where winning is really cool, but the coolest part is being able to share it with the people that you love,” says Breezy. “When you have somebody really important to you, and you actually get the opportunity to spot them in the stands and run over to them—it’s really special.” Connor held onto the lyrics of that song when planning his proposal to Breezy. Inside a custom wood box, he had inscribed: “Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy.” (They both add that they wouldn’t mind if Taylor Swift wanted to make an appearance at their wedding.)
Breezy admits that she told Connor her dream of getting engaged at the Olympics just three months into dating. “It was kind of a double benefit for me, because that was a couple of years off, so he wouldn’t have any pressure,” she says. “It [felt like] just far enough out there that we could figure out if this was gonna work.” Time passed, and a year out from the Olympics, Connor asked Breezy what she would want in an engagement ring. “I’m always a big believer that options make you less happy with things,” says Breezy. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to go ring shopping. I want you design it.’” Connor got to work and had a ring ready to go by August 2025—a white gold design with a blue sapphire center stone and a curved, pavé band with white sapphires. Breezy notes how perfect the choice of a sapphire ring was. “I’m so much more of a color person,” she explains. “I was not sold on the white diamond thing.” Connor adds: “Blue is also her color.”
Planning an Olympics proposal came with some extensive coordination. “The most important thing at the Olympics is the racing and doing the thing. I did not want to take away from that and make sure that whatever I did complemented it,” says Connor. He decided he would wait till after her final race—the super-G—to pop the question. He looped in the U.S. ski team with his plans in October to see what would be feasible. “They were an amazing resource,” he says. They helped arrange for Connor to get into the athlete’s finish area surrounded by their close friends from the ski team, as well as the NBC cameras to capture the moment. “I had a backup plan and a backup to the backup plan,” Connor says. Those alternatives almost had to be actioned after Breezy fell during the race. Luckily, she got down with only a few bruises and was able to join Connor at the perfect time. “It was definitely a surprise in the moment,” the skier says.
As Breezy was still in her Team USA ski gear, Connor got down on one knee and gave a thoughtful speech asking her to marry him. He admits that he first started running lines of it by his therapist a few weeks in advance. “I wrote 90% of it on the plane here,” he says. “I will tell you, I did not have it memorized until this morning. I had my eyes closed in the stands, talking myself through it multiple times because I knew NBC was going to mic me up.” Breezy said yes through tears, and the couple embraced as the crowd cheered around them.
The newly engaged pair spoke with Vogue ahead of a planned toast with their team that night. They mentioned their excitement to spend more time in Italy together after the engagement and watch Breezy’s best friend race in the moguls. They also said they were excited to enjoy the slopes, pasta, and wine before heading back home. When asked if they were planning to have an engagement party soon, they admitted that Breezy would need to finish up the ski world cup season first. “Oh my gosh, when I get back mid-March, we’ll definitely have tons of engagement and gold-medal celebrations,” shares the Olympian. She says they are excited to get wedding planning, and will likely find a time around her racing schedule the following year.
A short time after our video call, they got an even bigger surprise. After posting their engagement pics to Instagram, Taylor Swift herself commented on Breezy’s post: “Where’s the trophy? He just comes running over to me. CONGRATULATIONS!!!” The Olympian replied: “@taylorswift I don’t know what’s better, Olympic gold or this comment. Sourdough engagement gift please??? would love to teach you to ski.”
In the meantime, Breezy does love that she can now call her new fiancé “her ex-boyfriend”—but most of all, the gold medalist adds, “I’m happy I found a good guy.”
