King of the Hill

April 01, 2002

A year to the day after a horrific crash left him in a coma for three weeks, Bill Johnson returned last Friday to ski the same slope at Montana's Big Mountain resort on which he had his near-fatal accident. Johnson, 42, still suffers from slurred speech and right side weakness, but he displayed the sleek form that won him a downhill gold in 1984. While Johnson doesn't remember the accident, Big Mountain's terrain struck him as familiar. The highlight of Johnson's weekend was his reunion with the ski patrol workers and doctors who treated him. "They were all very supportive," says Johnson. "I'd never known before how much I impressed people, but I really impressed people here."