William Dean Johnson (March 30, 1960 – January 21, 2016) was an American World Cup alpine ski racer.

After a run-in with the law at age 17, the juvenile defendant was given the choice between six months in jail or attending the Mission Ridge ski academy in central Washington state, and he chose the latter.

"[1] After mostly undistinguished finishes, his unexpected victory on January 15, on the storied Lauberhorn course at Wengen, Switzerland, was the first for an American male in World Cup downhill competition.

[5] A month later at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia), he had promising downhill training runs on a course that favored his gliding style.

He boldly predicted his Olympic victory, evoking comparisons to Joe Namath and Muhammad Ali, and irking his European competitors.

[6] His gold medal win at Bjelašnica in a time of 1:45.59 edged out silver medalist Peter Müller of Switzerland by 0.27 seconds.

On the show he explained to Johnny Carson that the actual question was "How much money would it be worth to ya, not what the Olympic gold meant to me personally."

[23][24][25] He attempted to start a professional circuit of downhill racing in 1985 to compete with the World Cup, but it failed to gain momentum.

At age 40, his marriage ended in divorce, and he was bankrupt and living in his class A motorhome when he mounted an improbable comeback bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The comeback ended abruptly on March 22, 2001, when Johnson crashed during a training run prior to the downhill race of the 2001 U.S. Alpine Championships, held at The Big Mountain near Whitefish, Montana.

[citation needed] Following a return to long-term care in February 2014, he was said to be free of infection, able to move one side of his body, eat and smoke with assistance, and communicate using a letter board.

Nearly fifteen years after his accident at The Big Mountain, Johnson died at the age of 55 on January 21, 2016, at the care facility in Gresham.