Bill Johnson Back on Skis

Bill Johnson returned to the slopes Friday, skiing down Mount Hood eight months after a frightening crash left the 1984 Olympic downhill champion in a coma with a brain injury.

“It felt great. I turned a lot,” Johnson said after a warmup run. He was especially pleased that he stayed upright on his skis. “I didn’t take a digger, and I’m not about to,” he said.

He has made quite a recovery since that day in March when--at age 41, 11 years removed from competition--Johnson fell face first after his legs separated and he tumbled into two restraining nets during a race before the U.S. Alpine Championships.

Johnson was unconscious when ski-patrol medics and a race doctor arrived to treat him at Big Mountain Resort in Whitefish, Mont. He was in a coma for three weeks. Johnson sustained severe head trauma and needed a breathing tube on the mountain and a tracheotomy at the hospital.

After recuperating in California, at the Centre for Neuro Skills, Johnson went to his mother’s home in Gresham, Ore., not far from Mount Hood.

Joining Johnson on the mountain Friday was John Creel, his coach before the crash, now helping him with physical conditioning.

Creel said his workout sessions were “getting too mundane” for Johnson, “so we had to get him out here and give him a reason to keep doing stuff that’s not fun.”