Koss leaves legacy

TURIN, Italy – A dozen years ago in Lillehammer, Johann Olav Koss had a fairytale Winter Olympics. Competing in his home country, he won three speedskating gold medals, setting a world record each time.

He’s doing pretty well at the Turin Games, too – thanks to an American inspired by what “Koss the Boss” did on the ice and what he’s done since hanging up his skates.

Koss now runs Right To Play, an organization he created six years ago to improve the lives of children in impoverished, war-torn areas. The group already has reached more than a half-million kids and hopes to double that soon through the money that’s started flowing in over the last few days.

Joey Cheek started the windfall after winning the 500 meters Monday, announcing he was donating his $25,000 Olympic bonus for winning the event to Koss’ charity. He challenged others to join him, and they sure have. More than $250,000 was pledged by Thursday, Koss said.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” Koss said. “I’m so thankful and humbled. Joey’s done something that we would’ve had to work years and years and years to do as an organization.”

Koss is no ordinary ex-jock lending his name and some of his time. This is a guy who won five Olympic medals (a gold and silver in Albertville in 1992, too), then earned a medical degree but opted to devote himself to humanitarian work.

He got hooked on bringing sports to children during a 1993 trip to Africa for a new charity called Olympic Aid. After Sydney in 2000, he felt that group wasn’t doing enough, so he came up with a new concept and the new name.

“Before, we raised money at the Olympics and gave it to other organizations,” Koss said. “We needed to implement our own programs on the ground. … You need to be there every single day for them, not every four years.”

Right To Play has 40 projects in 20 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They start by “training the trainers” so their programs can become a permanent part of the community, unlike groups whose contributions are forgotten once their money and equipment run out.

Then the games begin – about 450 of them, each with a life lesson slipped in.

A good example is “The Vaccine Game,” a variation of the playground favorite Red Rover.

Kids lock arms and form a circle, with one child in the middle and another on the outside. The outsider pretends to be a disease trying to break through the immune system (the ring) to infect the body (the person inside). When they succeed, a second ring is added, making it twice as tough to get in.

“They realize, ‘Wow!’ that’s how important a vaccine is,” Koss said, smiling.

Vaccinations and prevention of AIDS and other diseases are prime objectives. Through sports, Right To Play also aims to provide confidence, leadership and teamwork, character-building skills they otherwise might not have learned.

“It’s surprising to me that everybody thinks that children always play,” Koss said. “It’s not true. In the worst areas of the world, what we see is apathy, violence and sexual abuse. There is no play. It’s forgotten.”

Besides working for children, Koss has helped fight drugs and doping. He was a founding board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and served on the International Olympic Committee’s Athlete’s Commission.

Right To Play is his sole focus nowadays. He’s the president and CEO, and so dedicated to running it right that he recently earned an MBA degree.

While the group had a low profile until Cheek’s gesture, it already had some big-name ambassadors: Lance Armstrong and Wayne Gretzky.

The organization’s headquarters are in Toronto, with offices in New York and five European countries.