THE OLYMPICS: WINTER GAMES AT ALBERTVILLE : No Need to Boast : Eight Years After Victory at Sarajevo, Skier Johnson Still Has a Winning Touch

One day early in 1983, a caller to The Times’ sports department said, “Did you know there’s a skier from Van Nuys who’s winning a lot of downhill races in Europe right now?”

Oh sure, a Valley guy winning downhills in the Alps. “And who’s calling, please?”

“My name is Wally Johnson, and I wanted to let you know about my son, Bill,” the man replied. “He’s been first in three Europa Cup races this winter--that’s just a notch below the World Cup.”

Turns out, Wally Johnson was right. And it was only the beginning.

At Copper Mountain, Colo., that March, Bill Johnson won the downhill in the U.S. National Alpine Championships, and a week later went up against the international elite at Aspen. He fell and didn’t finish that World Cup downhill, but showed enough daring to mark him as a man to watch in the 1984 Winter Olympics the following February.

About three weeks before the Games, Johnson staged a series of flailing recoveries on the classic Lauberhorn downhill course at Wengen, Switzerland, en route to winning the race and causing extreme concern among the European skiing establishment. Who is this upstart American?

“He’s just a nose picker,” said Franz Klammer, the 1976 Olympic downhill champion, using a popular Austrian term of endearment. “We’ll take care of him at Sarajevo.”

In Yugoslavia, as training began for the Olympic men’s downhill, Johnson boasted: “I am going to win the gold medal, no question.” He then proceeded to dominate the field in just about every training run, which not only infuriated Klammer and his friends, but had them looking over their shoulders every time they came down the hill.

On race day, which finally arrived after delays caused by snowy weather, Johnson conquered Sarajevo, winning the downhill in 1:45.59. Swiss star Peter Mueller was 0.27 of a second behind in second place, and Klammer was 10th.

Johnson even aimed a barb at U.S. Alpine Director Bill Marolt, who had been generally cool toward him because of the racer’s somewhat undisciplined approach to training.

“Look at Marolt over there,” Johnson said during post-race interviews. “Now he’s taking all the credit. You’d think it was him who’d just skied down the mountain.”

Asked what the downhill gold medal was worth to him, Johnson replied without hesitation: “Millions!”

Friday, speaking from Crested Butte, Colo., Johnson said: “That comment was widely misinterpreted. The question wasn’t about what it meant to me, but about what it was worth. With the Olympics the way they are and people capitalizing on their gold medals, I answered it frankly. But what it meant personally and emotionally was the successful culmination of 20 years of ski racing.”

As life after the Olympics turned out, his estimate was probably a few hundred thousand off. After two more World Cup victories, at Aspen and Whistler Mountain, Canada, his career went downhill when knee and back injuries eventually forced him to retire two years ago at 29.

But there is no need to hold any fund-raisers for Johnson. He is moving along quite nicely with an assortment of ski industry endeavors, including promotional activities for the resort at Crested Butte, where he is the full-time “skiing ambassador.”

“I’m doing pretty good,” he said. “I can’t complain. My wife, Gina, and I just sold our house at Lake Tahoe and are in the process of moving to Crested Butte full time. We’re looking at a couple of pieces of land here, and a condominium, and may build a few houses on speculation.

“I also just spoke to my mother, and it looks like we’ve sold our apartments in Portland, so we’ll have some capital to work with.”

Johnson still races--but only in celebrity events, including one recently at Deer Valley, Utah, where he defeated 1952 Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen, more than twice his age but also benefiting from a huge time handicap. It was part of the three-race Tournament of Champions series, in which Johnson was the top money-winner.

Today, as the Olympic men’s downhill gets under way at Val d’Isere, France, Johnson can’t help but smile as he remembers his little coup of eight years ago, and roots for AJ Kitt to become only the second American male to win this race.

“How’s our boy doing?” was Johnson’s first question Friday. “I saw him race at Val Gardena (Italy) in December, and he would have won (instead of placing fourth) if he hadn’t made one little mistake. Then he said he probably didn’t have much of a chance in the Olympics because he didn’t like the course.

“I don’t know if he was setting himself up to be the goat or just trying to take the pressure off himself, but it sure was different from the way I approached things.

“I don’t think I was too bad the way I did it. I’m not that bad a guy when you get to know me, and not too many people do.”

Kitt, for his part, has expressed more confidence during training the past week, but has avoided making any brash predictions.

Johnson said he became “good friends” with Kitt before retiring and added: “He was on his way up, and we got along pretty well. We partied together, along with all the other downhillers.”

One of Kitt’s main rivals today will be Leonhard Stock of Austria. Stock, who will turn 34 next month, won the Olympic men’s downhill at Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980--four years before Johnson’s gold-medal performance.

Johnson, asked recently if he might be able to make a comeback at 31, said: “After two back surgeries and two knee injuries, I’ve had enough.”

Besides, if he were to attempt serious racing again, they might have to make the sequel, “Guts and Glory: The Bill Johnson Story II,” which would be unfortunate. The original made-for-TV movie, shown in 1985, did little for either ski racing or the cinematic arts.

It, and various other post-Olympic endorsements and contracts, made Johnson enough money to afford a flashy sports car and a house in Malibu, but when his winning stopped, so did some of his earnings.

While recuperating from the various operations, he returned to stay with his mother, D.B. Johnson, at her home in Gresham, Ore., near where he had first started racing, but he still spent part of each year with his father, Wally, in Van Nuys.

Bill and Gina Johnson’s year-old son, Ryan, drowned in November. Johnson said Friday that Gina is expecting again in August.

As for the Olympics, he said: “I don’t miss being there (in France) this time. It’s probably a zoo. But I liked Sarajevo.”

For obvious reasons.