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Bill Donahue is a writer for Outside, Harper’s, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, and more…

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February 1, 2002August 26, 2026 by Bill Donahue

End of the Run

Skier Bill Johnson won the gold medal in the downhill in the 1984 Olympics. Then in 1999, when he was 39 years old and ravaged by years of hard drinking, he tried to make a comeback. He crashed, incurring permanent brain damage. 

Outside
Edited by Laura Hohnhold. Photo by Michael Lewis.

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