Medal record
Johann Olav Koss (2007)
Men’s speed skating
Competitor for  Norway
Winter Olympics
Gold	1992 Albertville	1,500 m
Gold	1994 Lillehammer	1,500 m
Gold	1994 Lillehammer	‎5,000 m
Gold	1994 Lillehammer	10,000 m
Silver	1992 Albertville	10,000 m

Johann Olav Koss (born 29 October 1968) is a former speed skater from Norway, considered to be one of the best in history, and current assistant coach of Norway's speed skating team.

Biography[link]

Johann Olav Koss was born in Drammen, Buskerud County, Norway. Johann Olav 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.^[1] 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. Koss is now the CEO of 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. From his adopted home in Toronto, Canada, Koss directs seven regional Right To Play offices in Europe and North America with 64 paid staff and 90 volunteers.^[2]

He married his second wife, Jennifer Lee, in New York on May 23, 2009. Lee's friend Chelsea Clinton was one of the bridesmaids.^[3] Lee, 34, is a Harvard College, Oxford University and Harvard Business School graduate. She is currently an investment professional at Ontario Teachers' Private Capital in Toronto.^[4] They have one son together, Aksel Koss.

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. [2]

Koss completed his Executive MBA at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management in the University of Toronto in Canada. He has Honorary Doctor of Laws Degrees from Canadian universities - Brock University and University of Calgary.

Medals[link]

An overview of medals won by Koss at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

World records[link]

Over the course of his career, Koss skated ten world records:

Personal records[link]

To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Koss skated his personal records.

Koss was number one on the Adelskalender, the all-time allround speed skating ranking, for a total of 1,998 days, divided over three periods between 1992 and 1997. He has an Adelskalender score of 155.099 points.

Johann Olav Koss has attended the Bilderberg meetings.

See also[link]

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games

References[link]

Other sources[link]

• Eng, Trond. All Time International Championships, Complete Results: 1889 - 2002. Askim, Norway: WSSSA-Skøytenytt, 2002.
• Eng, Trond; Gjerde, Arild and Teigen, Magne. Norsk Skøytestatistikk Gjennom Tidene, Menn/Kvinner, 1999 (6. utgave). Askim/Skedsmokorset/Veggli, Norway: WSSSA-Skøytenytt, 1999.
• Eng, Trond; Gjerde, Arild; Teigen, Magne and Teigen, Thorleiv. Norsk Skøytestatistikk Gjennom Tidene, Menn/Kvinner, 2004 (7. utgave). Askim/Skedsmokorset/Veggli/Hokksund, Norway: WSSSA-Skøytenytt, 2004.
• Eng, Trond and Teigen, Magne. Komplette Resultater fra offisielle Norske Mesterskap på skøyter, 1894 - 2005. Askim/Veggli, Norway: WSSSA-Skøytenytt, 2005.
• Teigen, Magne. Komplette Resultater Norske Mesterskap På Skøyter, 1887 - 1989: Menn/Kvinner, Senior/Junior. Veggli, Norway: WSSSA-Skøytenytt, 1989.
• Teigen, Magne. Komplette Resultater Internasjonale Mesterskap 1889 - 1989: Menn/Kvinner, Senior/Junior, allround/sprint. Veggli, Norway: WSSSA-Skøytenytt, 1989.

External links[link]

• Johann Olav Koss at SkateResults.com
• Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database
• Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages
• Page honouring Johann Koss on the website of the 2008 Summer Olympics

See also[link]

• Right To Play

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Leo Visser	Oscar Mathisen Award 1990–1991	Succeeded by Bonnie Blair
Preceded by Falko Zandstra	Oscar Mathisen Award 1994	Succeeded by Gunda Niemann
Preceded by Miguel Indurain	United Press International Athlete of the Year 1994	Succeeded by Jonathan Edwards
Preceded by Atle Skårdal	Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year 1991	Succeeded by Vegard Ulvang
Preceded by Norway national football team	Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year 1994	Succeeded by Bjørn Dæhlie

George Stroumboulopoulos
George Stroumboulopoulos
Born	George Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos (1972-08-16) August 16, 1972 (age 39) Malton, Ontario, Canada
Other names	Strombo

George Mark Paul Stroumboulopoulos (pronounced /strɒmbəˈlɒpələs/; born August 16, 1972) is a Canadian television and radio personality, best known as the host of CBC Television's George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight (formerly The Hour; a talk show about the world's current events) and being a VJ for Canadian music television channel MuchMusic. Stroumboulopoulos studied Radio Broadcasting at Toronto's Humber College.

Family background[link]

He was born in Malton, Ontario, Canada, to a Greek father from Egypt and a Ukrainian mother who was also part Indian.^[1] He was raised in Toronto primarily by his mother, and a close-knit extended family.^[2]

Career[link]

Radio broadcasting[link]

In the second quarter of 1993, Stroumboulopoulos worked for a rock radio station in Kelowna, B.C., for a few months before getting a job offer at the Toronto radio station Fan 590 AM, working in talk radio for about four years before moving to MuchMusic.^[3]

MuchMusic[link]

From 2000–2004, Stroumboulopoulos worked at MuchMusic as producer and host of The Punk Show, then host of The NewMusic, MuchLOUD and MuchNews.^[4][5]

[edit] The Greatest Canadian

Prior to joining The Hour Stroumboulopoulos was featured on CBC television's The Greatest Canadian series as the advocate for Tommy Douglas. More than 1.2 million votes were cast over six weeks, as each of 10 advocates made their case for the Top 10 nominees. Stroumboulopoulos made a personal and passionate case for Tommy Douglas, Canada's "father of medicare"; Tommy Douglas was later named The Greatest Canadian.

[edit] Strombo Show

Stroumboulopoulos has hosted a long-running Sunday night talk radio show, The Strombo Show. Originally aired as a talk show on CFRB in Toronto and CJAD in Montreal, the show moved to the Corus network in November 2007 and the format changed to one of mainly music. The Strombo Show broadcast from 102.1 The Edge's Toronto studio and on other radio stations in the Corus Entertainment network, including CFOX-FM in Vancouver, Power 97 in Winnipeg, FM96 in London and Y108 in Hamilton.

The show moved to CBC Radio 2 on November 8, 2009.

[edit] The Hour / George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight

On January 17, 2005, the first episode of The Hour went to air. Currently in its seventh season, The Hour is a hybrid of news and celebrity and covers everything from politics, pop culture, the environment, human rights, entertainment, sports and more. Airing nationally at 11:00 pm on CBC, The Hour is Canada's only late-night talk show. It has won eight Gemini Awards. Stroumboulopoulos and The Hour have hosted a range of guests from world leaders to celebrities and politicians.^[6]

For the 7th season of the talk show, CBC announced that beginning September 20, 2010, the show was being renamed and shortened into a daily half-hour show called George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight; the revised program is broadcast weeknights at 11:05 pm local time, 11:30 pm in Newfoundland.^[7]

[edit] The One: Making a Music Star

In July 2006, George Stroumboulopoulos hosted an American reality television talent show, The One: Making a Music Star that aired on ABC in the United States, and CBC Television in Canada. It was advertised as a similar show to American Idol and Rock Star but with the twist that contestants would "live together in a fully functioning music academy", with their actions documented similar to the Big Brother format.

Reportedly the most expensive summer series in the history of the ABC network,^[8] its first episode, on July 18, 2006, scored a low audience of 3.08 million viewers.^[9] Subsequent episodes had even fewer viewers. The series was cancelled after just two weeks (four episodes) with the final results undecided on July 27, 2006, with no plans for any further episodes. Stroumboulopoulos returned to The Hour after the failure of the reality television show The One.

Charity and public awareness[link]

George Stroumboulopoulos and The Hour sponsored the "One Million Acts of Green" Internet Website^[10] challenge, calling on Canadians to register environmental acts they've done. The campaign registered over 1.6 million acts on the website. Stroumboulopoulos and his family^[11] have been devoted to this cause also supported by Dr. David Suzuki.

Stroumboulopoulos has also been involved with numerous charitable initiatives, such as hosting the 'HipHop4Africa' Mandela Children's Fund Canada and CapAids February 2006 Toronto benefit. He has traveled to the Arctic for a special on literacy, youth culture and the loss of Inuit identity. He has been to Sudan with War Child Canada, and Zambia for a World AIDS Day special documentary. He also supports Make Poverty History. He joined other prominent Canadians in sharing views on global issues in the March 2010 issue of Upstream Journal magazine.

He was co-host of Canada for Haiti television with Cheryl Hickey and Ben Mulroney to help the humanitarian crisis in Haiti after a devastating earthquake.

Stroumboulopoulos was appointed Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) the world’s largest humanitarian agency in March 2011. He has visited WFP operations in Pakistan and Haiti and has been a strong supporter of Freerice.com and WFP’s WeFeedback campaign which has helped to feed millions of hungry children.

He also presented at Vancouver's EPIC Expo in May 2011 where he showed support for Fair Trade and the work of the non-profit organization, Fair Trade Vancouver.

George showed up to Occupy Toronto to show his support for the movement.

The CBC and Stroumbuolopuolos came under criticism for hosting an apparently extravagant party during the Toronto International Film Festival, at the Hazelton Hotel in Toronto.^[12] The CBC, which is funded by the Canadian government, was criticized by some in the right-wing media over the expenditure for the event.^[13]

Awards[link]

This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page. (February 2012)

• The Hour has won six Gemini Awards.
  • In 2006 – Viewers Choice Award – Best Host
  • In 2007 – Best Talk Series – Best Host – Best Production/Design
  • In 2008 – Best Host
• Stroumboulopoulos was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws, from the University of Calgary on November 13, 2007.^[14]
• He was also awarded an honourary degree in Communications from Humber College in June 2009.
• He was selected by the United Nations World Food Programme as an official ambassador in March 2011.
• He was named one of the 192 Young Global Leaders for 2012 by the World Economic Forum in March 2012.^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Stroumboulopoulos

• George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC.ca
• George Stroumboulopoulos at the Internet Movie Database
• George Stroumboulopoulos on Myspace
• George Stroumboulopoulos on Twitter