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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Methow Olympic Development Project

  • Koos Looks To Sochi, Heads Back to School

    Koos Looks To Sochi, Heads Back to School

    Torin Koos, who just completed his first season outside of the US Ski Team structure but still managed to qualify for a spot on the squad representing the United States at the 2011 World Championships in Oslo, is hungry for more.

    “I plan to race through 2014, so I’m recharging the batteries as the moment,” Koos said. “My goal is to have top results in both the 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme and in Sochi 2014 [at the Olympic Games].”

    After spending last season living in Mazama, Washington as part of the Methow Olympic Development Project (MOD) working with coach Scott Johnston, Koos will be on his own for the 2012 season, but doesn’t think pursuing his goals outside the US Ski Team, and without a formal coach will be a disadvantage for him.

    “Doing it this way gives me the opportunity to do what I am doing and spend time where I want to be,” Koos said, adding that after a decade on the international circuit he feels that he knows how to put together a training plan.

    “It’s not rocket science,” said Koos, who is turning 31 in July.

    Changing everything

    On Monday May 9, Koos moved to Utah and drove straight to campus to attend his first classes of the spring/summer term at Westminster College. His tenure on the US Ski Team, which ended after the 2010 Olympic season, earned him free tuition at Westminster College.

    Torin Koos (MOD) winning the skate sprint at the U.S. National Championships in Rumford, ME. (Photo: flyingpointroad.com)

    “I’m excited to get back into that and get going on my degree again,” Koos said to FasterSkier.

    While Koos is going back to school this spring to complete his master’s degree, he is planning to race full time in the winter. He started the degree – a Masters of Professional Communication with emphasis on Internal Business Communication – in the summer of 2005.

    He considers the 2005-06 season the breakthrough year in his skiing career, so going back to the program he started prior to that brings back good memories.

    Koos will go to school full-time this spring/summer and fall, and then again next spring/summer and fall. If all goes according to plan, he will receive his degree in the end of the fall term 2012. That progression leaves him free to pursue skiing full-time in the winter.

    Training in Norway

    The fall term ends in mid-December, and Koos plans on heading to Rumford, Maine for US Nationals in early January.

    After Nationals, Koos is making plans to spend a large chunk of the winter in Trondheim, Norway, training with the Strindheim ski club – the club that is home to World Champions and Olympians Petter Northug and John Kristian Dahl.

    “I plan on spending the heart of the winter training with the best skiers in the world. I think that must be one of the best clubs in the world,” Koos said,.

    “They have 11 medals from the Worlds, nine golds. It seems like a good club. They’re into skiing for sure,” Koos noted.

    Surgery

    Coming up on a season with no major events or championships, Koos is looking forward to get back in shape after a bout of mono this spring as well as rehabbing from a shoulder surgery in May.

    Koos racing the team sprint at World Championships

    Koos crashed in a sprint race just prior to the World Championships in Oslo, and dislocated his shoulder. He was able to keep the pain under control for the rest of theseason, but realized he needed to fix the problem. With a more relaxed race schedule this upcoming season, it seemed like the best time to have a 2-month break from training would be right now.

    “Now is the time to do it. I’ll have six weeks of no movement at all; I’ll even be sleeping with it pinned down somehow. Then I’ll start some light physical therapy, and after two months I expect to start training for skiing,” Koos said.

    Ups and downs

    Koos’ main goal for the 2011 season was qualifying for the World Championships in Oslo, even though he had to do that without the support of the US Ski Team. He achieved that goal, but was not able to perform at his best due to the shoulder injury.

    Marred with both accidents and injuries, and then coming down with mono at the end of the season, Koos was looking for a change as the 2011 season came to a close.

    “I was looking for a move in terms of school and to move on as a skier and athlete. I had my breakthrough years in Utah in 2005-06, and I felt like coming back to an environment that I know works for me, a place where I’ve had success before,” Koos explained.

    Splitting from MOD

    Koos left MOD after the World Championships in Oslo. And while Koos and MOD head coach Scott Johnston originally intended to work together for longer than the fall and winter, the relationship came to an earlier end.

    Scott Johnston

    “It wasn’t the plan. The plan was to continue on for longer than this season. I really don’t want to comment on that,” MOD head coach Scott Johnston said.

    However, looking back at the 2010-11 season, a lot of things went well, Johnston said.

    “From the mechanical end, the season went very well. Everything was according to plan. Torin was headed in a great direction until he dislocated his shoulder just before the Worlds in Oslo,” Johnston said, pointing out that Koos won a couple of National Championship titles (classic and skate sprints) and a sixth place in the 15K classic in Rumford, Maine, in January.

    Johnston and Koos have not worked together since World Championships. Koos stayed in Europe to continue racing there while Johnston returned to the US to help his other MOD Squad athlete, Sam Naney, at the USSA SuperTour finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.

    When Koos mentioned to Johnston that he wanted to move away from Mazama and go back to school, Johnston encouraged the change.

    “He had the opportunity to have free tuition at Westminster College, even though he was no longer on the US Ski Team, and he would have to go to Salt Lake City to do that. I don’t think that will negatively impact his training program. He has training partners there and I actually think that will be a really good thing for him to combine school with athletic pursuit,” Johnston said.

  • Koos Opens Season with Training Races at Beito

    BEITOSTØLEN, Norway – A seasoned racer who is a veteran of three Olympics and five World Championships, Torin Koos is aiming for a spot on the U.S. squad heading to the 2011 World Championships in Oslo in February. While a 17th place in the skate sprint qualifier at Beitostølen (NOR) and a 58th place in the 15 k classic Sunday may not seem like the most impressive application, Koos regards his season openers as just that: getting his feet wet and readjusted to the scene.

    “Oh, it was a start. It always feels good to get the first race of the year under the belt,” said Koos after the Saturday sprint race, admitting that he was aiming a little higher than 17th.

    “In the qualifier, I thought I was putting down one of my most fluid prelims yet. The legs didn’t feel incredibly snappy, and the glide on the skis was a little off, and I was hoping for a little more than 17th here,” he said.

    After the qualifier, Koos and Scott Johnston, Koos’s coach with the Washington-based Methow Olympic Development Project, decided to get more creative with the wax to improve the glide for the heats.

    “For the rounds, Scott Johnston got his mad scientist ski testing skills on and found a better overlayer, getting my skis in the game,” Koos said.

    More than great skis

    They nailed the wax, but a sprint is full of surprises outside the technical details that you can control – the terrain and the course setup also play a role. And after a poor start in his heat, Koos ended up missing out on a lucky loser spot by a less than a half-second.

    “Unfortunately, at the start, my lane had a bit of a downhill…and instead of rolling into a false start, I checked myself right as the starter’s pistol fired. I was way back in the pack most of the race, but found some daylight up the final climb and made a good move into third.

    “I heard I missed the lucky loser spot by two-tenths of a second. Okay day, and there’s many more chances to fight again,” said Koos, who is looking forward to his next events in Finland with the group led by the Maine Winter Sports Center.

    “Sure, you want more. But I see myself racing myself into competition shape and getting back the great feeling for snow over these next weeks.”

    Video from Beito sprint here:

    Beito sprint race Saturday

    Decent start

    Johnston was also content with the season opener at Beitostolen.

    “Overall we are both pleased with way the race went,” Johnston said, emphasizing that this was the first of many race weekends in a long season.

    “We made the decision to train through this race so we could make the most of our first ten days on snow for the season,” Johnston said. “We are encouraged by this solid-if-not-spectacular result in a very strong field (the race penalty was 17 points), that shows all the components of his training to be in place.”

    This is also Koos’ first season outside the U.S. Ski Team in many years, which makes for new experiences both logistically and support-wise. While in Norway, Koos and Johnston are working with a regional elite team based out of Sjusjøen/Lillehammer, coached by former World Cup racer John Anders Gaustad. The set-up has worked smoothly, and helped the duo make the most of their prep time in Norway.

    “Team Sjusjoen, they’re a bunch of great guys and have been a big help in making us feel welcome,” Johnston said.

  • Koos Reloads for 2011, But Quietly

    Torin Koos in the final of the team sprint at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

    It’s hard to fly under the radar when you’re 6’2” and one of the best sprinters in the world. But Torin Koos is giving it his best shot.

    Koos, who was dropped from the U.S. Ski Team (USST) this spring, has been quietly reloading for the upcoming season with the Methow Olympic Development Project (MODP), a two-person team based in central Washington.

    He has been off the grid, living in a cabin 15 miles from cell phone service on the property of his coach, Scott Johnston. He declined to be interviewed for this story, writing in an e-mail that he preferred to wait until the season “is on in earnest.”

    But in just a few weeks, Koos will start his first race of the year in Norway, and by all accounts, he’s missing none of the speed that put him on the World Cup podium in 2007. At the USST’s September camp in Sun Valley, Koos finished second in three separate time trials to Andy Newell, setting the stage for the competition season.

    “He came out chargin’, ready to race,” said USST Head Coach Chris Grover. “I think we’ll be seeing him really, really soon.”

    According to Johnston, he and Koos will travel to Norway on October 30th for a month of racing in Scandinavia. Koos will start his season with domestic competitions in Beitostolen, Norway, before moving on to Rovaniemi, Finland, to meet up with a trip headed by the Maine Winter Sports Center. Between the two weekends in Beitostolen and Rovaniemi, he’ll have the option of starting up to five races, including a pair of sprints.

    In addition to Johnston’s help, Koos will also be receiving assistance from a Norwegian club, Team Sjusjoen, which will support him at the races in Beitostolen. (The details of the arrangement aren’t set, but they will be worked out once Koos arrives in Norway.)

    The Rovaniemi races will be scored to the U.S. National Ranking List, which plays into the selection of the American World Championships team. And there’s another incentive in Finland: Athletes who are “killing it” at those early-season events could be called up to the World Cup with the USST, Grover said.

    “We’re going to be watching the results,” said Grover. “If someone’s having the kind of results where that could be, for sure, a top-20 result or maybe a top-30 result [on the World Cup]…then we’ll probably give them a start.”

    Johnston was cautious about setting the bar too high, saying that Koos’s priority in November and December is to get some time on snow and some races under his belt. But the team sprint World Cup in Dusseldorf on December 5 could be a good fit, Johnston said.

    Torin Koos racing at the pre-Olympic World Cup in Canmore in February. Photo, Win Goodbody.

    Koos will fly back to the U.S. on December 7 and put in a training block before traveling to National Championships in Maine in early January. Then, he’ll travel back to Europe for more racing, and a run at World Championships.

    Last year, Koos was on-and-off, battling sinus infections and lingering complications from an infected hair follicle that required surgery. He failed to qualify for the heats in four World Cup sprint starts in November and December, then returned to North America to recover and train.

    At the pre-Olympic sprint in Canmore, Koos qualified second and made the semifinals, only to miss the heats in Vancouver, which turned out to be the end of his international race season.

    Koos joined the MODP in April, and he has been training with teammate Sam Naney in central Washington since roughly mid-July. (Erik Bjornsen was also a member of the team until departing for college in August.) The two are rarely far from the watchful eyes of Johnston, who takes a hands-on approach to coaching and supervises workouts each day, often twice a day.

    “Scott is extremely dedicated to the task—he takes the time to learn an athlete and all of the facets—more than just how that athlete performs in a given workout, or how they race,” Naney said. “That’s really what sets Scott apart. He doesn’t want to be the coach of 15 athletes. He wants to be the incredible coach of two or three or four athletes.”

    At the start, Johnston said that he focused on areas where he could make a relatively quick impact on Koos’s technique and fitness—what Johnston termed “low-hanging fruit.”

    “He needed to regain some confidence, and some sense that the direction he was headed in was going to be a beneficial one,” Johnston said. “I wanted to attack that from a couple of different ways that would net positive changes in fairly short order, so that he would see them and feel them, and be encouraged.”

    By Naney’s account, the approach has worked, and Koos’s close relationship with Johnston has paid off.

    “He’s really thrived under it,” he said. “He knows when he’s feeling good, and I think that’s been pretty visible.”

    According to Naney, Koos’s “pinnacle goal for the year” is netting a strong result at World Championships. But neither Naney nor Johnston said that Koos had his sights set on returning to the USST. Currently, Johnston said, Koos’s living and travel expenses are being covered by the MODP, and he has maintained a relationship with In the Arena, a non-profit that provides financial support for athletes who perform community service.

    Koos has also been cutting and selling firewood, as well as working on a motorcycle, and generally adhering to what Johnston called a “monastic lifestyle.”

    “It’s remote—it has allowed him to focus just on what he’s doing,” Johnston said. “We just want to keep our heads down, do our work, and then see how things go this season.”

    –Topher Sabot contributed reporting.