Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is not only an Olympian and a former NHL player, but a current college ice hockey coach, as well. Guiding the University of Wisconsin’s women’s ice hockey team to success since 2002, the team won its first NCAA national championship under Johnson in 2006 and repeated this title in 2007, 2009, and 2011. Prior to coaching, Johnson, born in Minneapolis in 1957, made his international debut for men’s ice hockey with the United States national team at a mere 18 years old in 1976. At the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, Johnson won a gold medal in the team competition and thirty years later, also won a silver medal coaching in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Just a year after his first debut on the national team, Johnson was selected in the 1977 NHL Draft by the Pittsburg Penguins. He continued to play in the NHL until 1990, ending his playing career with the New Jersey Devils. Since his retirement as a player in the NHL, Johnson served as an assistant coach for the national men’s hockey U.S. team, head coach of the women’s national team, and is currently the head coach for the women’s team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.