Biography

Johann Olav Koss was born in Drammen, Buskerud County, Norway. Johann Olav Koss became the Norwegian Junior Champion in 1987, but he could not compete with the world top skaters in the 1986 and 1987 World Junior Championships. In 1988, he debuted with the seniors at the World Championships in Alma-Ata, but failed to qualify for the final distance. The following year, he finished eighth in the same tournament (after a fifteenth place in the European Allround Championships), placing second on the 1,500 m. His breakthrough came in 1990, winning the World Allround Championships in Innsbruck, Austria. The following four years, he would win two more world titles (1991 and 1994), while finishing second in 1993 and third in 1992. He won the European Allround Championships in 1991 and finished second in the next three editions. Koss had a total of twenty-three World Cup wins, while winning four overall World Cup titles (the 1,500 m in 1990 and 1991, and the combined 5,000/10,000 m in 1991 and 1994).

Koss made his Olympic debut at the 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh on the 5,000 m, five days after undergoing surgery because of an inflamed pancreas. He would recover to win gold on the 1,500 m (by only 0.04 seconds over his countryman Ådne Søndrål) and silver on the 10,000 m (behind Dutch skater Bart Veldkamp ).

In 1994, the final year of his speed skating career, Koss also gained fame outside the speed skating world by winning three gold medals at the 1994 Winter Olympics in his native Norway, winning all races in new world records, two of which would remain unbeaten until the clap skate era. For his performance, he was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year in 1994, together with Bonnie Blair. In addition, he received the Oscar Mathisen Award three times: in 1990, 1991, and 1994.

After his speed skating career, Koss trained as a physician at the University of Queensland in Australia. He became a UNICEF ambassador and a member of the International Olympic Committee (until 2002). He married Canadian businessperson and politician Belinda Stronach on 31 December 1999, but they divorced in 2003. Koss is now the CEO of the Canadian-based International Humanitarian Organisation, Right To Play, which uses sport and play as a tool for the development of children and youth in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. From his adopted home in Toronto, Canada, Koss directs seven regional Right To Play offices in Europe and North America with 64 paid staff and 90 volunteers.

He married his second wife, Jennifer Lee, in New York on 23 May 2009. Lee's friend Chelsea Clinton was one of the bridesmaids. Lee, 37, is a Harvard College, Oxford University and Harvard Business School graduate, and a former cellist who studied at The Juilliard School. She is the granddaughter of Kim Chung Yul, the former Prime Minister of South Korea and Chief of the Korean Armed Forces during the Korean War. She is the Co-Founder of a retail business called BRIKA which sells products from under-the-radar artisans and makers. She is a former management consultant and most recently a private equity investment professional at Ontario Teachers' Private Capital in Toronto. They have three children together, Aksel, Annabelle and Andreas.

In November 2009, after American Peter Mueller was stripped of his coaching role with Norway for an inappropriate comment to a female team member, Koss was appointed head coach, despite no previous coaching experience. Association sporting director Oystein Haugen told Reuters that Koss has been a revelation despite no previous coaching experience.

Koss completed his Executive MBA at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management in the University of Toronto in Canada. He has Honorary Doctor of Laws Degrees from Canadian universities - Brock University and University of Calgary. On 1 July 2015, Koss was made an honorary Member of the Order of Canada.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Koss at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

Championships	Gold medal	Silver medal	Bronze medal
Winter Olympics	1992 (1,500 m) 1994 (1,500 m) 1994 (5,000 m) 1994 (10,000 m)	1992 (10,000 m)	-
World Allround	1990 1991 1994	1993	1992
World Cup	1990 (1,500 m) 1991 (1,500 m) 1991 (5,000 m / 10,000 m) 1994 (5,000 m / 10,000 m)	1992 (1,500 m) 1992 (5,000 m / 10,000 m) 1993 (5,000 m / 10,000 m)	1990 (5,000 m / 10,000 m)
European Allround	1991	1992 1993 1994	-
Norwegian Allround	1991 1992 1993 1994	1989 1990	-
Norwegian Single Distance	1989 (1,500 m) 1989 (5,000 m) 1990 (1,500 m) 1990 (5,000 m) 1990 (10,000 m) 1991 (1,500 m) 1991 (5,000 m) 1991 (10,000 m) 1993 (1,000 m) 1993 (5,000 m) 1994 (1,500 m)	1989 (1,000 m) 1990 (1,000 m) 1992 (1,000 m) 1992 (5,000 m)	1988 (10,000 m) 1991 (1,000 m) 1992 (1,500 m) 1994 (5,000 m)
Norwegian Marathon	-	1988	-

Records

World records

Over the course of his career, Koss skated ten world records:

Event	Time	Date	Venue
3000 m	3.57,52	13 March 1990	Heerenveen
5000 m	6.41,73	9 February 1991	Heerenveen
10,000 m	13.43,54	10 February 1991	Heerenveen
Big combination	157.396	10 February 1991	Heerenveen
5000 m	6.38,77	22 January 1993	Heerenveen
5000 m	6.36,57	13 March 1993	Heerenveen
5000 m	6.35,53	4 December 1993	Hamar
5000 m	6.34,96	13 February 1994	Hamar
1500 m	1.51,29	16 February 1994	Hamar
10,000 m	13.30,55	20 February 1994	Hamar

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Koss skated his personal records.

Event	Result	Date	Venue	WR
500 m	37.98	7 January 1994	Hamar	35.92
1,000 m	1:14.9	10 January 1993	Hamar	1:12.58
1,500 m	1:51.29	16 February 1994	Hamar	1:51.60
3,000 m	3:57.52	13 March 1990	Heerenveen	3:59.27
5,000 m	6:34.96	13 February 1994	Hamar	6:35.53
10,000 m	13:30.55	20 February 1994	Hamar	13:43.54
Big combination	157.257	9 January 1994	Hamar	156.882

Koss was number one on the Adelskalender, the all-time allround speed skating ranking, for a total of 1,998 days, divided over three periods between 1992 and 1997. He has an Adelskalender score of 155.099 points.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]