Compared to winter’s adrenaline-packed downhill sports, it might be hard to associate a word like “brutal” with cross-country skiing. But Torin Koos, a native of Leavenworth, Wash., views the sport differently.
The 25-year-old is gearing up to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, the second of his career. He hopes to finish in the top 10 in the sprint race and in the top 8 in the sprint relay, which he’ll ski with Vermont’s Andy Newell in Torino, Italy, this February.
“Forget the U.S. perceptions of cross-country skiing. It’s endurance at its best – a sport that takes a huge aerobic and anaerobic engine, matched with technique,” said Koos in early January.
In Torino, Koos will compete in a 1.5-kilometer head-to-head sprint race with as many as four heats in a single afternoon. But that’s not nearly as taxing as the relay sprint, in which two teammates alternate six times each around a 1.5-kilometer course. Neither are an easy stride through the woods.
Koos was born with ski fever. His father Shaun, a U.S. biathlete in the ‘70s, introduced him to skiing at a young age. By the time he was 12, Torin was already racing.
Skiing, however, didn’t offer the first competitive milestone of his athletic career. That he earned on the track when he took the state high school championship in the 800-meter and the 4x400-meter relay. Both running and skiing remained top priorities for Koos as he started school at the University of Utah on a running scholarship.
At the same time, he raced for the U.S. ski team, but his involvement was restricted mostly to big-ticket competitions like the World Championships and 2002 Olympics.
“I had to make a decision,” remembers Koos. “Did I want to be world-class in skiing?” It was then that he shifted his focus from running to skiing. Now he trains twice a day, every day, and spends his down time recovering. Despite near-constant action, his down time can be the hardest to handle.
“I’m someone who can hardly sit still,” he said. “I’m usually going 90 miles-an-hour. On days off, I want to be tele-skiing or road biking.”
During the off-season, he hits the books. After he graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in mass communication, he began graduate school at Westminster College in Utah and is pursuing a Masters in professional communication.
He also runs the Torin Koos Summer Ski School in Leavenworth and is active with Team Today (www.teamtoday.org), a non-profit group that works to advance skiing in the U.S., mostly among young people.
“We want to get kids dreaming that they can be the next Bill Koch – to really invest themselves in sports like cross-country skiing and to train hard,” he said.
After this year’s Olympic Games, Koos will continue to train and attend grad school in the summer. Beyond that, he plans to continue skiing and reach the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. – and perhaps return to his hometown.
“I’ve been to many amazing places,” he says, “but the Northwest is special. It will always be my home, in one way or another.”
For more information about the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, see www.torino2006.org.
Congratulations Torin! We wish you the best of luck in Torino this February! As this month’s Peak Performer, Torin will receive gifts from Solstice and Baker’s Breakfast Cookies.
Please email your nominations for Peak Performer to: editor@OutdoorsNW.com.
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