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Koos' day
Cross-country skier aims to deliver ‘best race ever'
By Mark Morical / The Bulletin
Published: February 17. 2010 4:00AM PST
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Torin Koos, who moved to Bend two years ago, trains at Whistler Olympic Park on Tuesday for the men's individual sprint classic, scheduled for today.
Brian W. Robb / For The Bulletin
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2010 Winter Olympics: Torin Koos
His name is derived from Thor, the Norse god of thunder. And Torin Koos hopes that his thunder is accompanied by a little lightning today at Whistler Olympic Park.
The Bend resident, of Swedish ancestry, is set to race in the cross-country skiing men's individual sprint classic starting this morning at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Koos, 29, said the date Feb. 17 has been “etched in my memory” for a long time.
“That's the time to put everything together that I've learned in all these years of skiing,” said Koos, reached by phone last week just before leaving Canmore, Alberta, for the games in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The son of former U.S. national team biathlete Shaun Koos, Torin recalled that his first thoughts of competing in the Olympics came when he was in the second grade.
Growing up in the shadow of the Cascade Range in Leavenworth, Wash., Koos (rhymes with “goose”) began skiing not long after he learned to walk.
“We had a good club growing up, and four or five guys around my age who were really motivated,” Koos said. “We would push each other. I'm the one that stuck with it the longest.”
Koos went on to ski at the University of Utah, where he also ran cross-country and the middle distances for the Utah men's track team. His strongest sport was track and field — until his skiing career blossomed.
Pursuit of a dream leads to Bend
Koos, now in his eighth year on the U.S. Ski Team, competed in both the 2002 and 2006 Winter Games. But he is still looking for a defining Olympic performance.
He said he was skiing at his “highest level” heading into the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, coming off a victory in the European Sprint Cup and posting the second-fastest time on the World Cup. But the week before Turin, he fell ill with an infection in his lungs. He skipped one Olympic race and finished 36th in another.
“I just feel with my performances in the Olympics the last two times, I won't look back and say that was when I was at my peak,” Koos said.
He is hoping that today might prove to be the peak of his career.
To help make that happen, Koos moved to Bend two years ago to live near Bend resident Justin Wadsworth, a coach for the U.S. Olympic Cross Country Team and himself a three-time Olympian.
Enlisting Wadsworth as his personal coach, Koos enjoyed his offseasons training in Central Oregon. He finished fourth in the annual Pole Pedal Paddle multisport race from Mount Bachelor to Bend this past May. During the summer and fall, Koos could be found on the streets of west Bend training on his roller skis, or in the Central Oregon Cascades “crust cruising” whatever snow remained.
Though skiing and training take up most of his daily schedule, Koos finds time for some freelance journalism, coaching junior high track and field in the spring, and volunteering in a fifth-grade class at Bend's Miller Elementary School.
“It's been a good two years in Bend,” Koos said. “I like the size of the city. It's got some stuff going on, but it's not too big. I can get right out to the trails, and the roads aren't too busy with cars.
“There's a lot of good people to train with, and that's all you need. It's not too different from where I grew up.”
An all-around skier
After a somewhat mediocre first half of the current World Cup season, Koos appears to be peaking at just the right time. He placed 11th and was the fastest American in a World Cup sprint race in Canmore earlier this month.
“It's a good place to be heading into the games,” Wadsworth said of Koos last week from Vancouver. “It shows the speed and the fitness are there.”
When asked about his chances for a medal or a top-10 finish, Koos said he tries not to focus on those types of goals.
“I don't want to say I have to place here or there to be satisfied,” Koos explained. “It's more if I get everything dialed, the performance itself will lend itself to a high placing. I just want to bring out my best race ever.”
While it is his strongest discipline and his focal point for these games, the individual sprint might not be Koos' only race at Whistler. He said he could compete in as many as three more events, including the team sprint on Feb. 22, the 4-x-10K relay on Feb. 24, and the 50K classic on Feb. 28. Most of those starting spots will not be decided by the U.S. coaches until a day or two before each race, according to Wadsworth.
“We're not making any decisions about what events until later on,” Wadsworth said. “We have a good-sized team and they're all pretty fit, and they all have similar races they're interested in. (Koos') next best chance would be the team sprint, and then the relay, and after that, the 50K.”
Though he is strongest in the sprint, Koos said he now considers himself more of an all-around skier, capable of racing a variety of distances.
“It's a little over a mile and we do it four times in an afternoon,” Koos said of the sprint competition. “A lot of guys that are good at sprints are good at other races. But it's a little more power (in a sprint). It's surprising how much range you can have. And technique is such a big part. Good skiing is good skiing.”
Andy Newell, of Shaftsbury, Vt., is considered the top sprinter for the United States. At the 2006 Olympics, he finished 16th in the individual sprint.
Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway, the reigning world sprint champion and winner of the World Cup sprint title the past two seasons, is widely considered the prohibitive favorite. But any member of the Norwegian men's sprint team has a chance at gold.
Cheering him on
Koos is single, and most of his family lives in Washington. His parents reside in Leavenworth, and a younger sister lives in Seattle. His younger brother, Sten, is an offensive tackle on the football team at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.
Competing less than 300 miles from his hometown of Leavenworth, Koos figures to have a substantial contingent of fans today at Whistler Olympic Park.
“Oh yeah, there'll be quite a few — 12 family members, friends from college,” Koos said. “I should have one of the biggest cheering sections out there.”
Mark Morical can be reached at 541-383-0318 or at mmorical@bendbulletin.com.
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