Johann Olav Koss was born in
Drammen,
Buskerud County, Norway. 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. in 2000, Koss founded 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. The organization operates in more than 20 countries reaching over one million children each week and is supported by more than 620 staff worldwide and over 14,900 volunteer coaches. In August 2015, Koss transitioned into the role of founder at Right To Play, where he still stays very active in a variety of fundraising initiatives, and where he maintains his seat on the International Board of Directors. Lee is a
Harvard College,
University of Oxford, 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. Lee is a former management consultant and most recently a private equity investment professional at
Ontario Teachers' Private Capital in
Toronto. They have four children together, Aksel, Annabelle, Andreas and Aleksander. 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 Doctorates from several universities -
Brock University,
University of Calgary,
Vrije Universiteit Brussels, and the
University of Agder in Norway. At the 2018 Olympic Games Koss was inducted into the
Olympians for Life project for using sport to make a better world. ==Controversy regarding medical advice==