Bill Johnson, who in 1984 became the first American skier to win a gold medal in the Olympics’ marquee skiing event — the downhill — died Thursday at an assisted-living facility in Oregon. He was 55 and had long been in declining health after suffering a number of strokes.
“He suffered the worst kind of pain for the past three weeks,” his mother, DB Johnson-Cooper, told the Oregonian’s John Canzano on Thursday night. “Then he could no longer swallow, which prevented him from being able to have nourishment.”
The brash, cocky Johnson told everyone who would listen that he would win downhill gold at the 1984 Sarajevo Games and then he did exactly that, setting a then-Olympic record and ending European skiing’s 36-year dominance in the event. Only one American man — Tommy Moe at the 1994 Lillehammer Games — has repeated his feat.
Johnson won two World Cup events in 1984 but then his career went into a decline. Injuries and his attitude — he got into a fight with a U.S. team assistant in late 1987, just before he was left off the team for the 1988 Calgary Games — were his downfall, and he retired after the 1990 season. He attempted an improbable comeback in an attempt to make the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, but those hopes ended after a horrific crash during a training run in 2001.
Outside magazine wrote about the crash in 2002:
“Then he caught an edge, his legs went spread-eagle, and his body flew sideways through the mesh fence marking the course. His helmeted head smacked the snow, hard; his brain rotated inside his skull, and tissue tore and bled. Within minutes he was in a coma. … “
The crash left him permanently impaired.