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Travels with the Leavenworth Olympian
- "Dinner with Gunde" - Torin Koos Photo Story
November 2007
DINNER WITH GUNDE
BY TORIN KOOS
Meeting Gunde
Svan was not supposed to happen this way. No, not while pushing a
Swedish meatball through a puddle of lingonberry sauce. Maybe a
shake of the hands at the prize giving ceremony for the Royal Cup
Sprint around the King’s Castle in Stockholm or at Café Opera after
the World Cup Finale. No, not while eating dinner in Torsby. In a
dining hall filled with Sweden’s national team, Gunde sat down
beside coach, teammate, me. That’s when I met the one I spent grade
school days daydreaming about, dropping the Russians, the Finns, and
Vegard Ulvang at Holmenkollen, Falun, Calgary.
In seconds the ten time Olympic and World Champion gold medalist
seamlessly enters in conversation, our conversation. I rely on
seamless the adjective as a crutch in describing a first time
meeting free of pleasantries or lows in dialogue. I wish to explain
this better. I cannot. I only remember thinking, ‘Gunde, he’s good.
He’s got charisma. He’s equal parts humble and confident. He’s got
great stories – talking rally cars never gets old. Empty dinner
plate. Wait a second, how’d this happen? How’d I get into this
conversation?”
With time, themes of conversation change course. “I moved away to
Torsby at sixteen to attend the ski gymnasium here. The first weeks
were hard – I remember the nerves of being on my own in Torsby. But
it was my choice to come here. I saw this as the perfect place to
chase being a ski racer. There wasn’t the ski tunnel – it’s kind of
incredible, really – but Torsby had Sweden’s only rollerski track
then. We thought this quite a thing, being able to rollerski without
worry of cars and trucks. The terrain, too, was something else. The
course’s steep hills built up more than just my ski muscles. The
terrain built up my capacity. On roads, you can’t really do this. We
needed those tough hills. I’ve always thought I needed as much time
training in the terrain of ski courses. The loop had this.
“Maybe I do know something about skiing, but it’s been years since
my ski career ended,” continues Svan. “The young skiers know me more
for being on television than for skiing. Charlotte Kalle today told
me, ‘I always knew what you meant to Swedish skiing but I remember
you from the Bingolotto and Gladiators. It’s these shows I grew up
watching.”
“I’ve mostly been out of skiing since retiring after Falun 1991.
It’s been some years since my ski career ended. Since retiring most
of my work has been working with business leadership with my wife.
It’s for this reason why I take on this new challenge with the Team.
When told I was wanted for this job they said, ‘We’re not hiring you
for what you did on the ski trails.’ They brought me in for the work
I’ve done since then.
“Our team, maybe you’ve heard, has some challenges ahead,” Gunde
says in reference to Thobias and Mathias Fredrickson, Bjorn Lind and
Anders Sodergren’s decision to train and race outside Team Sweden.
“We cannot have two national programs going in two different
directions. We have to be one. We have to work together. There is no
other way.”
One hour later, Mr. Svan met with the four members outside the team.
Two days later, the four members were back within the national team.
That weekend Bjorn Lind finished second in the individual sprint in
Dusseldorf. Thobias Fredrickson, with Peter Larsson as teammate, won
the World Cup Sprint Relay. Having Gunde in on the conversation
couldn’t have hurt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 & Icicle Village Resort (
www.iciclevillage.com
)
BioSports NorthWest Physical Therapy (
www.biosports.net
)
Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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