Olympian Downhill Skiing Champion, Bill Johnson, Dies at 55...
Bill Johnson, U.S. Olympic Downhill Skiing Champion, Dies at 55
JAN. 22, 2016 - William Dean "Bill" Johnson, the first American male to win an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, died on January 21 after a long illness related to a disastrous ski crash. He was 55.
Bill Johnson, U.S. Olympic Downhill Skiing Champion, Dies at 55
JAN. 22, 2016 - William Dean "Bill" Johnson, the first American male to win an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, died on January 21 after a long illness related to a disastrous ski crash. He was 55.
Bill Johnson, a swaggering skier who in 1984 became the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing, but whose life took a sharp, precipitous turn soon afterward, died on Thursday at an assisted-living facility in Gresham, Ore. He was 55. Megan Harrod, a spokeswoman for the United States Alpine team, confirmed his death. Johnson, in declining health, had a series of strokes in recent years after sustaining brain damage in a skiing accident in 2001. Downhill racers, who hurl themselves down slick, dizzying slopes, are seldom retiring, but Johnson’s brashness stood out. Like Muhammad Ali, who predicted the round in which he would stop an opponent, Johnson promised Olympic gold in 1984, at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Everybody else, he said, “could fight for second.”
After winning the gold convincingly, at 23, he was asked what it meant. “Millions,” Johnson said with his trademark smirk. “We’re talking millions.” It was a heady time for Johnson after that triumph. President Ronald Reagan expressed the nation’s pride at a White House reception, telling him, “You gave your country thrills beyond description.” There was a slew of endorsement deals, magazine covers and, in 1985, a fictionalized television movie about his life, “Going for the Gold: The Bill Johnson Story,” starring Anthony Edwards as Johnson. Johnson married and bought a house in Malibu, Calif., and a Porsche. His victories in two World Cup events the month after the Olympics presaged a bright athletic future.
Bill Johnson during the men’s downhill ski event at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
But all that was prelude to a long slide. Johnson was injured time and again, trained lackadaisically and sparred with coaches, one of whom he hit on the shin with a ski pole. He competed until 1989, but there were no more Olympics and just a couple of seventh-place finishes in World Cup events. (Before his Olympic triumph, he had been the first American man to win a World Cup downhill competition.) If his ski career bore a resemblance to the 1969 movie “Downhill Racer,” starring Robert Redford, it was no accident. As a youth, Johnson — who was blond (like Mr. Redford), 5 feet 9 inches and raced at 170 pounds — watched that film many times. The plot involves an ambitious, self-centered racer who rubs everybody the wrong way, then redeems himself by winning an Olympic gold medal.
Johnson, center, went on to become the first American man to capture an Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing. He was 23 at the time.
After retiring in 1989, Johnson made a quixotic bid to play professional golf, briefly ran a ski school, worked as a carpenter and an electrician, lost money in the stock market as a day trader, moved 11 times in 12 years and sometimes slept in his R.V. He still lived dangerously, driving his Harley very fast, surfing at midnight, racing snowmobiles in Alaska, shooting his guns and drinking heavily. In 1991, his 1-year-old son, Ryan, somehow climbed into a hot tub and drowned. In 1999, his wife, the former Gina Ricci, left him; they divorced the next year. She moved to Sonoma, Calif., with their two sons. Johnson got in barroom brawls and spent a night in jail.
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