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Travels with the Leavenworth Olympian - "Olympic Spirit"

Torin Koos Photo Story July 2006

Olympic closing ceremonies view. Salt Lake City, 2002. (Photo Credit: Koos)

This summer I was presented with the opportunity to be the keynote speaker at the NCW Sports Award Banquet. The Rotary sponsored dinner gala as a way to honor North Central Washington’s best athletes, teams and coaches, as well as generating revenue to help support NCW youth athletics. Since its inception, the banquet has generated approximately $200,000, after expenses, for youth sports and Wenatchee North Rotary donations. My remarks follow:

Good Evening.

A wise friend of mine says “Too much credit always will leave you in debt.” While I don’t entirely know what he means by this, I’ll take his word for it.

On February 19th, 2006, thanks to my family and friends, teammates and coaches, I had the excellent on the field of play. I accomplished a dream I’d had since ten, to once again compete in the Winter Olympic Games. In Vancouver 2010 I hope to finish this goal by standing on the top step of the Olympic podium as the Olympic champion. Arms outstretched. Watching the American flag rise. Hearing our national anthem being played. You know, great Bud Greenspan stuff.

It’s an honor to be up here tonight at the Wenatchee Valley North Sports Award Banquet. I feel honored to be among the people nominated tonight. It’s the same honor I have when representing North Central Washington on the Olympic field of play.

Over the year I’ve met many people impressive in sports. I’ve also met the even more impressive sportsmen and sportswomen. I’ve found I can be very good doing things for myself – chasing my dreams and trying to be the best I can be. But I’ve only been brilliant when my actions have been to the benefit of something more than just me. I think this is true for everyone. You can be great when you set your mind to something. But you can only be brilliant when you do something for the service of others.

Steve Prefontaine was not a saint. He was a part-time bartender who lived in a trailer. He reveled in being a relbel from a Northwest working-class town not unlike Wenatchee. He never set a world’s record. He never won an Olympic medal. But Steve was brilliant. He realized the power of his fame and used it positively.
 

Prefontaine winning the U of Oregon Twilight Invitational. (Photo Credit: Unknown)

Steve Prefontaine’s fame and admiration did not come over night. Nor did it come easy. Childhood friends of Steve’s said he was always in constant motion. That he was charged with an unbelievable energy to measure up against the best. For Steve Prefontaine and others from the blue-collar town of Coos Bay, sports provided an outlet.

Prefontaine has this to say about his hometown: “In Coos Bay you don’t have many ways to jump. You can be an athlete. Athletes are very, very big in Coos Bay. You can study, try and be an intellectual, but there aren’t many of those. Or you can go drag the gut in you lowered Chevy with a switchblade in your pocket.”

I don’t mean to belittle the intellectual. If that’s your calling, go for it. What I want to say is this, if sports are your passion, set high goals, stick to them. Not for a season or two, but for years and years, through thick and through thin. No matter how much talent you have, the cards of adversity will be stacked against you at some time in your life. If there’s one thing I guarantee you, it’s this.

Every year, for the last five years, Tyler Farrar has broken his left collarbone. But his resolve for leading a team in the Pyranees mountain top stages of the Tour de France is even stronger today than it was five years before.

Tyler preparing for a race against the clock. (Photo: Cycling Mag)
 

In chasing my dreams, I’ve also had setbacks. Some of my proudest moments are when I got dealt a bad hand, but played it as best I could. In 1999 I headed south to the University of Utah. It was my dream to be an All-American in three sports – cross-country running, skiing, and track & field. My first week in Utah I fractured my femur, the longest, strongest bone in the body. It was a compound fracture. I couldn’t run on it for six months. I had the hardest time getting around campus, hobbling from class to class. My leg throbbed in pain all the time. But I never felt sorry for myself. I never gave up hope. At first I could only go to the weight room and lift with my upper body. Eventually I could swim, then I could aqua jog. Eventually I could bike, then ski, then finally jog on it. And yet, that first year, I went from being a decent high school athlete to knocking on the door of being a great collegiate athlete.

By sticking to his dreams, Steve went from being a decent runner as a freshman to being the high school two-mile national record holder three years later. But it’s what Steve did after that, off the track, that made Steve go from being great to brilliant.

He took on a corrupt and powerful amateur sports establishment that made millions for a group of old white men, while America’s best athletes live off of food stamps. By taking on the AAU, Prefontaine risked being able to ever compete for he United States ever again. But his actions directly led to the betterment to all non-revenue athletes since. In his free time Steve tutored high school students. He visited nursing homes. He ran with prisoners behind bars. Prefontaine set a standard for all people, of all ages, to aspire to.

To me personally, no athlete was more brilliant than American speedskater Bonnie Blair. She won 5 gold medals in the Winter Olympics. But it’s what Bonnie did in the service of others that makes her so brilliant.

Most people would tell you sprinting over ice on the Olympic speedskating arena is a place to think about getting a fast start and a clean trip around the oval. And nothing more. But Bonnie Blair knew the opportunity she had in Lillehammer at the 1994 Olympics.

“I’ve always felt like if I ever did something this big like this I wanted to give something back,” she said.

Bonnie Blair at the 1994 Lillehammer, Norway Olympics. (Photo Credit: All Sport)

And that’s what Bonnie Blair did. On the tenth anniversary of the Sarajevo Games, on a night marked by a mortar blast that killed 68 Bosnians and wounded 200 more, Bonnie Blair teamed up with Norwegian speedskater Johann Olav Koss to begin Right-to-Play. It is a humanitarian organization that brings hope through sports to children of war-torn countries. What Bonnie Blair did is an absolute inspiration to me.

What Bonnie Blair did also inspired a fourteen year old kid from Greensboro, North Carolina to switch from inline skating to speedskating. Twelve years later that same kid would be an Olympic speedskating champion in Torino, Italy.

And just like his boyhood hero, Joey Cheek realized the power of his performance and used it positively by donating his forty-thousand dollars in medal bonuses to the humanitarian organization Bonnie Blair helped begin.

“I thought about this for a while,” said Joey Cheek. “I won the World Championships and I thought: ‘I might actually have a shot of doing something great at these Olympics. If I do, I want to make it meaningful. Because the one thing I learned is that there’s a gold medallist tonight. And tomorrow there’s another gold medallist. So I can either take the time and just gush about how wonderful I feel or I can use it for something productive.”

Since the Olympics, Joey’s actions have directly raised over one-million dollars to help refugees in Chad.

Joey on top of the 500M. Torino, Italy, 2006. (Photo Credit: USOC)

To all the guys, you could do far worse than follow in Steve Prefontaine’s or Joey Cheek’s footsteps. To all the girls, I cannot think of more brilliant footsteps to follow in than those of Bonnie Blair.

To all the athletes, I’m awed every time I see you compete. It’s amazing the things you do, the skills you’ve achieved. We are all very lucky to have this shot. Because we can outrun defensive backs, hit foul shots in a crowded gym with the game on the line, or hurdle hurdles like they were never there, whole towns come out to watch us compete.

How we carry ourselves on, and off, the field affects the world. I’m very proud to be part of this community – to call this my home. I’m appreciative to all the people who have helped each and every one of us chase our dreams. On behalf of all the athletes, thank you. Enjoy the night.

En route to a 9th at the Canmore (CAN) World Cup, December 2005. (Photo Credit: Pete Vordenberg)

Thank you Icicle Village Resort and Best Western Icicle Inn for the support. Vancouver 2010 is just 211 miles and three years away. See you there, if not before. -Torin


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Torin Koos is a member of the National A Team for the United States and a World Cup, World Championship and Olympic competitor.

Equipment: Rossignol Skis, Boots and Bindings, Toko gloves and wax, Marwe, Exel poles, Rudy Project Eyewear, Powerbar
Home Ski Club: Leavenworth Winter Sports Club ( www.skileavenworth.com )
Headgear Sponsor: USA Pears ( www.usapears.com )
Best Western Icicle Inn ( www.icicleinn.com )
BioSports NorthWest Physical Therapy ( www.biosports.net )

Contact Information
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If you are interested in supporting Torrin Koos we will be happy to pass your information along to him.  Your partnership will help support the lifestyle needed to keep the dream alive. As an athlete, Torin hopes his Olympic journey inspires the community to participate in the free air lifestyle, the same customers that come to visit the Leavenworth area.

email: kevin@icicleinn.com
phone: 888-353-0595
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