Johann Olav Koss
Norway
Speed Skating
Overall Ranks
#2 among Norwegian Olympians
#1 among Speed Skaters
Olympic Results
1992
1500m - Gold
10000m - Silver
1994
1500m - Gold
5000m - Gold
10000m - Gold
Total
Events - 6
Gold - 4
Silver - 1
Johann Olav Koss was born on October 29, 1968 in Drammen, Norway, and grew up skating. He was Norway's national junior champion in 1987, but struggled for a few years after moving up to senior races. He finally started to see some success in 1990, and by the time the 1992 Olympics came around, he was one of the better speed skaters in the world.
The week before the Olympics, he had to undergo surgery due to an inflamed pancreas, but he still pushed through it and competed. His first event was the 5000m, where the ice was impacted by rainfall earlier in the day, and he was one of the first skaters to go, resulting in a slower time than he wanted on the soft ice. After the first several pairs had finished, they touched up the ice, and the later skaters had more success, while Koss ended up finishing 7th, which would end up being the worst finish of his career.
His next event was the 1500m, and though he should have been the favorite, it was unclear how healthy he was after the surgery and his last race. Two Dutch skaters had the top times when Koss took the ice in the 8th pair, with Leo Visser in the lead. Koss matched Visser's pace exactly through the entire race, then sped up slightly on the final lap to take the lead by 0.09 seconds. Another Norwegian skater threatened that time in the next pair, but came up 0.04 seconds short, and none of the remaining 28 skaters came very close, and he was able to hold on for his first gold medal.
In the 10000m race, the top time kept getting lowered by one skater in each successive pair. Robert Vunderink of the Netherlands set the time to beat in the second pair, but that time was immediately beaten by Geir Karlstad of Norway, who skated nearly 5 seconds faster. Koss was up next, and he beat his teammate's time by 3.5 seconds, but then Bart Veldkamp of the Netherlands beat his time by 2.46 seconds in the next pair. There were still 20 skaters to go, but none got within 10 seconds of a medal, and Koss was able to take home the silver.
The next Olympics were held just two years later, due to an adjustment made to stagger the years for the Summer and Winter Games, and they were held in Lillehammer, in his native Norway. Just before the 1994 Olympics, Koss had broken the world record in the 5000m, which was his first event that year. His teammate, Kjell Storelid, broke the Olympic record while racing in the second pair, but after Koss went in the 4th pair, it was all over. Koss beat Storelid's time by 7.72 seconds, and broke his own world record by more than half a second, and no other skater came close the rest of the way.
Next up was the 1500m, where Rintje Ritsma of the Netherlands had just broken the world record the month before, so when Koss took the ice in the second pair, he had that in mind. He needed a final lap that was nearly a full second better than anyone else to pull it off, but he was able to break the world record by 0.31 seconds. Only 2 more skaters were able to get within a second of his time, including Ritsma himself, but none was able to defeat him, and he took his second gold of the games.
He was also the world record holder going into the 10000m race, and he was the first of the favorites to take the ice, skating in the 5th pair. He kept a steady pace throughout the entire race, and by the end, he had obliterated his own world record by 13 seconds, and left everyone else to compete for the other medals. Storelid ended up coming in second for silver, but he was 18.7 seconds behind Koss, who won an absolutely dominant 3rd gold medal of the games.
He abruptly retired right after his record-setting performance to attend medical school. Many years later, accusations were made that he had been using PEDs during his triple gold performance, and that that had been the reason for his early retirement, but there has still not been any proof of this. He won 4 gold medals in only 6 Olympic events, and set new world records in all 3 events in 1994, which makes him the greatest speed skater of all time, and one of the greatest Olympians.
