America has not forgotten that icy run to gold. Johnson and his teammates were made the torchbearers for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, and Disney chronicled the 1980 team’s magic in the 2004 movie
Miracle, in which Johnson was played by Eric Peter-Kaiser and Brooks was portrayed by Kurt Russell. Although Johnson considers himself fortunate to have carved out such a treasured piece of hockey history, he won’t allow himself to be defined by it.
“It was part of my life, but it’s not who I am,” he says.
A challenge seems irresistible for Johnson. In 2005, he entered his first Ironman triathlon, along with his son Doug, inspired by watching his sister-in-law compete the year before. The competition is a grinding mix of a 2.4-mile swim in Lake Monona, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon. This year, he competed again at age forty-nine — and he finished in fourteen hours, thirty-seven minutes, nearly two hours faster than his first outing. His best event? “I couldn’t swim too well, and I hate running, so I suppose that leaves biking,” he says.
“The one comment I hear from people is, ‘I could never do that,’ ” he adds. “In our business, that’s one thing you don’t say.”