Johann Koss
Four-Time Olympic Gold Medallist & President of Right To Play
Named ‘Sportsman of the Year’ by Sports Illustrated, the four-time Olympic Gold Medallist Johann Koss is President of Right To Play, an international humanitarian organization. Using sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in the most disadvantaged areas of the world, Right to Play builds local capacity by training community leaders to deliver its programs in more than 20 countries affected by war, poverty, and disease. A speed skater from Norway, Koss took four gold medals in the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics, and he is still widely considered to be one of the best skaters in history.
A four-time Olympic Gold Medallist, Johann Koss is President of Right To Play, an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. Under Koss’s leadership, Right To Play has grown into an internationally respected NGO with operations in more than 20 countries.
A speed skater from Norway, Koss took four gold medals in the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics, and he is still widely considered to be one of the best skaters in history.
Outside his involvement with Right To Play, Koss is active in a number of sport and Olympic causes. In 1997, he was appointed Chairman of the Norwegian Government Forum against Drugs and Doping. He is also on the board of an organization called “MOT” (Courage) that mobilizes Norwegian athletes in the fight against drugs and doping. He was a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athlete’s Commission from 1998 to 2002, and was on the Medical Commission and the executive board of the IOC 2000 Commission handling issues of reform. Koss also served as a founding board and executive board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (2000 to 2002) where he initiated the Athlete anti-doping passport. In 1994, Koss was appointed Special Representative for Sport for UNICEF International.
Koss has been the recipient of numerous awards including 'Sportsman of the Year' by Sports Illustrated and the Child Survival Award by the Carter Center. He was declared “One of 100 Future Leaders of Tomorrow” by TIME Magazine, and “One of 1,000 Global Leaders” by the World Economic Forum. In January 2006, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.
Koss completed his undergraduate medical training at the University of Queensland, and recently completed his executive MBA at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. In June 2005, Koss received a Doctor of Laws Honourary Degree from Brock University.
Right To Play is an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. Working in both the humanitarian and development context, Right To Play builds local capacity by training community leaders as Coaches to deliver its programs in more than 20 countries affected by war, poverty, and disease in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
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