Skier who upset his European rivals and became a household name in the US as the first American to win an Olympic gold in alpine skiing
When the skier Bill Johnson began a brief but incandescent run of success that culminated in the 1984 Olympic downhill gold medal, he upset the Austrian and Swiss grandees of the slopes. To them he was an upstart, the epitome of the brash and even ugly American. Franz Klammer, the greatest racer of the era, dismissed him as der Nasenbohrer: the nosepicker.
Johnson, who has died aged 55, was the rookie who told his elders and supposed betters that he was going to whup them. Like Muhammad Ali, he made his words match his deeds – for a while, at least. But his season of glory was enough to make him the first American to win a World Cup downhill race, and then the first to win an Olympic gold medal in any alpine discipline.
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