Bill Johnson, 1984 Olympic downhill champion, dies at 55

Bill JohnsonBill Johnson, the 1984 Olympic downhill champion who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2001 crash, died Thursday, the U.S. Ski Team confirmed though Johnson’s mother.

“He suffered the worst kind of pain for the past three weeks,” said his mother, DB Johnson-Cooper, according to the Oregonian. “Then he could no longer swallow, which prevented him from being able to have nourishment.”

Johnson predicted he would win the downhill at the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Games and followed through, becoming the first American man to capture Olympic Alpine gold.

The man with the “Ski To Die” tattoo was left off the 1988 Olympic team, lost his son to drowning in 1992, and his marriage ended in…