1:45.59 edged out silver medalist Peter Müller of Switzerland by 0.27 seconds. True to form, when asked in the post-race press conference what his victory meant to him, he exclaimed, "Millions, man, we're talkin' millions!" However, in a February 21st 1984 appearance on The Tonight Show -- Season 22, Episode 89 -- Johnson clarified this quote as a misquote. 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." So if he is to be believed, he was in fact not bragging, but only answering the stated question which was, as Johnny put it, "specifically about money." Post-Olympic decline After two more World Cup downhill victories in Aspen and Whistler in March 1984, Johnson was at the top of his sport. With four downhill wins in just two months, he was an Olympic champion and finished third in the downhill season standings. But after the 1984 season, his best results were two 7th-place finishes: at Wengen in January 1985 and at Whistler in March 1986. His brashness made him unpopular with the European fans and competitors. Three days late to a training camp, his financial support was withdrawn in May 1985, but he returned to the team several months later. Due to injuries to his left knee in December 1986 and back which required surgery, and more significantly, sagging results, Johnson was left off the U.S. team for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, unable to defend his gold medal. A month later he was suspended from the team and missed the final events of the 1988 season. It was later disclosed he had a locker room scuffle with an assistant coach in November 1987. By the end of the decade, he was done as a serious competitor; he retired after the 1990 season. Soon after his Olympic win, Johnson openly voiced his strong opinions about amateurism in ski racing and the U.S. Ski Team's handling of his finances. He attempted to start a professional circuit of downhill racing in 1985 to compete with the World Cup, but it failed to gain momentum. Johnson's Olympic career was the subject of a 1985 TV movie called Going for the Gold: The Bill Johnson Story, featuring future ER actor Anthony Edwards in the title role. It first aired in May and