Claremont McKenna College announced today that four- time Olympic gold medalist Johann Olav Koss will receive $250,000 for Right to Play, the international nonprofit group he founded, as the winner of the eighth annual Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership.
A ceremony to present Koss with the award, given for leadership in the nonprofit sector, is set for April 18 on the Claremont McKenna campus.
Founded in 2000, Right To Play uses play to empower children facing adversity and focuses on four areas -- education, health, peace building, and community development. It reaches about 1 million children in more than 20 countries.
"We use play as a way to teach and empower children," Koss said. "Play can help children overcome adversity and understand there are people who believe in them. We would like every child to understand and accept their own abilities, and to have hopes and dreams, but also to have respect for the person on the other side of the field or who has been on the other side of conflict."
Henry R. Kravis, co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., said it's important that recipients of the prize he founded "have a real and measurable impact in the community."
Koss, he said, is "a true hero for aspiring athletes" and "his legacy also now includes transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of children through something as simple as the opportunity to play sports."
Koss, a speed skater, won a gold model in the 1992 Winter Olympics in the 1,500 meter race, despite surgery for an inflamed pancreas just five days prior.
At the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, he won three more gold medals in his native Norway, setting records along the way. That year, Sports Illustrated named him Sportsman of the Year and featured him on its cover with U.S. Olympic speed skater and gold medalist Bonnie Blair.
Right To Play is supported by a network of more than 300 professional and Olympic athletes from more than 40 countries, including retired ice hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky.
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