Less than a year after he nearly died in a skiing accident, Bill Johnson returned to competition during an old-timers’ event at the U.S. Alpine Championships last Saturday, at Squaw Valley Resort in California.
His speech remains slurred, and there’s still weakness on the right side of his body. That’s not surprising for a 41-year-old man who was in a coma for three weeks after an accident that severely damaged his brain.
He skied competitively during the Return of the Champions event that featured several former U.S. Olympians, and later complained that he had taken it too easy on his competitors in the dual slalom, but realized how lucky he was.
“It’s really great for me to be here,” he said. “I was barely alive a year ago, and now I’m at the U.S. championships.”
It was during last year’s national championships that Johnson tumbled while trying to make an unlikely comeback to the U.S. team. He was hoping to compete in the Salt Lake City Games, 18 years after becoming the first U.S. man to win gold in the Olympic downhill.
On March 22, 2001, he crashed in Whitefish, Mont., falling into two restraining nets and suffering severe head trauma. He needed surgery to repair his tongue, which he nearly bit through.
After months of rehab, Johnson returned to skis last fall, and proudly reports that he has skied 17 times this year. He made it to the Salt Lake City Games, but only as a torch-bearer during the opening ceremony. He plans to return to Montana next weekend to ski at the Big Mountain Resort where he was critically injured a year before.
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Hunter Mountain will be the drop-zone for the U.S. Para-Ski Championships this weekend. The combined parachute-accuracy landing and ski racing gets underway at 8 a.m. on Saturday with a 3,000-foot jump from hovering helicopters.
Drops will be navigated by over 60 competitors from across the U.S. Floating through the sky, chutes will be aimed at a 5-centimeter target in Hunter Mountain’s Snowtubing Park. Day two of the para-ski action includes a giant-slalom race on Sunday. The final standings will be determined by the combined results of both events. The top six competitors will move on to the International Para-Ski Championships in Europe.
The event is open to the public.
On Sunday, Hunter Mountain invites season pass-holders from around the world to hit the slopes for spring skiing and riding.
Passes from any mountain, including night, mid-week and even international season passes shown at any Hunter Mountain ticket window will entitle the holder to one all-day, all- area lift ticket.
For more information, about the weekend events at Hunter call (888) 486-8376.
