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Torin Koos

Torin Koos is a member of the National A Team for the United States. A World Cup, World Championship and Olympic competitor, Koos brings this experience to the FasterSkier sportscasting arena for the 2008/2009 season.

Part Two of Three Part Series Torin Koos is a member of the National A Team for the United States. A World Cup, World Championship and Olympic competitor, Koos brings this experience to the FasterSkier sportscasting arena for the 2005/2006 season. Equipment: Rossignol Skis, Boots and Bindings, Toko gloves and wax, Marwe, Exel poles, Rudy Project Eyewear, Powerbar Home Ski Club: Leavenworth Winter Sports Club ( skileavenworth.com ) Headgear Sponsor: USA Pears ( usapears.com )

Part One of Three Part Series For the four years since Salt Lake 2002 Trond has been at the reigns of the U.S. Ski Team. On his last day on the job Mr. Nystad sat down for a conversation — about where he hoped to lead American skiing years ago, to where he sees it headed in the years to come. Torin Koos is a member of the National A Team for the United States....

Magne Myrmo might not be a household name among American ski circles these days. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a ski legend. Of ski legends from the 1970s, Myrmo’s name holds up well to his Norwegian teammate Oddvar Braa, the big Finn Juha Mieto and America’s own Bill Koch. Myrmo is perhaps best known for his disdain of early fiberglass skis. Racing at the 1974 World Championships in Falun, Myrmo didn’t even bother to bring...

Skiers go into the weight room to turn strength into power, and as the big races approach, to turn this into ski specific power. With the New Year here the racing season is very much underway for most skiers. For those with Olympic aspirations, many athletes are getting more ski specific with their strength and power building, both in the weight room, and on snow. Andrew Newell V2ing uphill en route to a fast prologue...

As a skier, you see the world. Eating reindeer sausages and cloud berries in Finland. Drinking Glug in Norway on New Years. Watching a wild pack of moose trot briskly by on a suburban Alaskan street. Writing helps put in their rightful place the incomplete remembrance of roads taken, breakdowns, misdirections, potholes, and detours of my days on the road chasing snow. Being around people in sometimes such tight accommodations, you find out insights from...

Leading the reigns of the U.S. National Team Trond, talk to us about leading the reigns of the U.S. National Ski Team. Mind sharing the ideas and objectives you have put on the table from taking over after Salt Lake? At the Ski Team we’ve been working on teamwork and being professional, pro athletes. These two, that been our biggest changes. As a team, coaches and athletes together, we’ve created a professional environment. We do...

Every good road trip must have a partner in crime. Colby Frazier’s my usual Southwest mate. Since turning in his running shoes after graduating from the University of Utah, Colby’s been writing for the Salt Lake Tribune. In August he heads west to Sideways country to learn the winemaking ropes from Longoria Winery (www.longoriawine.com). Could this be our last trip together to Southern Utah? I hope not. First day out, and we’re racing the sun...

“I'm so tired I just want to lay down and sob in a snowbank,” Carl Swenson said to his support staff in the moments after the Maricalonga marathon, a seventy-kilometer ordeal through the Northern Italian valley of Lago de Fasso. . Swenson wasn't talking about sobbing of dispair but one of pure exhaustion that Marcialonga finishers visited on the course. The U.S. Ski Team came away rewarded though with three top twenty-five World Cup results,...

Buddhists call it nirvana. Jesus tells of peace. Digging down to respond to attacks in the French Pyranees Lance Armstrong finds a way to take the focus off the miles of twisting uphill grades remaining. Hundred degree heat. How every muscle is wound so tight with fatigue and stress and lactic acid, every peddle stroke is a moral victory in itself. Armstrong talks about replacing these concerning feels by going within; to a quiet place...

Editor's Note: This interview took place in August, but as you will see, Pete's thoughts still hold true. The man sounds off on the changing guard of international skiing and America’s growing confidence in the top levels of sport. Here we are, coming into the final days of the New Zealand ski tour, with the ‘real’ ski racing season set to get away in about eight weeks. How do you feel about how the National...

Director of U.S. Nordic Skiing Luke Bodensteiner sounded off today against those saying they’ve seen faster 100M skiers than the Americans.   “The Finns can say what they want — we have the record and the fastest 100M sprinters in the world today.  That’s the thing with world records, they are meant to be broken.  We welcome the world to go after our standard (using internationally standardized protocol). This will become an annual Soldier Hallow event. ...

The U.S. national team coaching staff tells the athletes they have to define success for themselves. Every race, domestically and internationally, they define who the U.S. ski team is and what American skiing stands for. Working with the national team from the mid-nineties on, you’ve had time to see trends, form impressions. Where do you see American skiing headed? I started working with the U.S. ski team in 1997. It was a pretty funky group...

Chris, you took over the Development team in 2003 after working with Miles Minson for several years. What are some of the ideas and objectives you’ve tried to build and instill into the program? I learned a lot working with Miles. He was always thinking about improving the basics. He made me realize it isn’t super hard to prepare people to race fast. We spent most out our time, going back, working on the fundamentals....

“Stand tall gentlemen, stand tall” the starter says, executioner style, moments before the start. From the set…bang! through the first bend of the Stanford track, I think, feel, and remember nothing. Jittery emotions that have been brewing inside my stomach the last three days now have a half-mile of track to work themselves out. These moments, I fret over, lose sleep over. I also live for these times. The race is on now and today’s...

From the falling lemon yellow sun one can tell the night is nearing six o’clock, time to prepare the bar-b-que. I stack briquettes, open air vents, and pour lighting fluid. Then, with a flick of a match comes the titillating whoomph of combustibles igniting. The fire burns hot, flame replaced by glowing red circles of heat. “Life’s too short for propane” I say to myself as if some creed or mantra to live by, but...

We at FasterSkier are excited to welcome Torin Koos as a contributing author. This account of US Ski Team’s summer training in Park City is the first of Torin’s articles about life as an elite racer. Altitude training uniquely stresses the body. Less oxygenated air naturally raises hemoglobin and hematocrit values. One’s oxygen transport system improves, but at a price. Recovery takes longer. Training too ambitiously at high altitude for a week could push one...