Bill Johnson

I am a bit sad about this. Bill Johnson, 1984 Olympic downhill gold medallist, who has been suffering in rehab, after a bad head injury, has now elected to withdraw from his life support system.

BJ has always been a bit of a character, but he suffered a bad injury some 12 years ago. A year back, encouraged by his friends, I had sent him some cards and a painting, and he had responded. Typical of the guy to do this.

I hope he is able to come through this.

Pretty complex guy, with an interesting history by any standards.

His Wikipedia entry ( Bill Johnson ) includes;

After a run-in with the law at age 17, the juvenile defendant was given the choice between six months in jail or attending the Mission Ridge ski academy in central Washington state, and he chose the latter.

This appears to be a contemporary report of the accident on his comeback attempt back in 2001 :-

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=99762&page=1#.UecG7G3JIrM

:(

But from 1984, Bill doing what he did best, and is remembered for...

Yes, I think I remember that the judge gave him a choice of jail or living with a mentor, Dave somebody, and he was steered into a positive direction ~ with the best of results.
There but for the grace of god go .....

My OH just caught me watching the BJ video, (I surreptitiously watch ski racing videos most nights anyway), and pronounced me a saddo.