BINGHAMTON (WBNG) – Dan Kosick is a two time Olympian, tough mudder competitor, all-around athlete and was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor at age 15, which led to the amputation of his leg above the knee.
“He’s tremendously driven, he fearless,” said fellow competitor and founder of Newbsanity Jarrett Newby.
“In a way it was sort of a blessing in disguise,” said former Team U.S. alpine skier Dan Kosick. “When you are young and it happens you don’t get caught up in all these deep thoughts of cancer and death you just sort of say I want to get my life back going again and that was my motivation.”
Toward the end of high school, Kosick was introduced to ski racing and the rest was history.
“I basically told my parents at the age of 17 that I wanted to make the United State disabled Ski team and compete in the 2002 Paralympics,” said Kosick. “I eventually made the team a little sooner than I expected in 97′ and I competed in the 98′ games in Japan and then stuck with it for four more years and gave it all I had in 2002 and then retired after that.”
Now, At 41 years old, Kosick is training for his second ever Spartan race at Greek Peak in Cortland at the beginning of March.
“Greek Peak is just like any Spartan race that you are going to get yourself into,” said Newby. “They are going to beat you up with some hills right off the bat so it starts with going up a tough ski slope, you go sprinting up the top of the hill and then at the top of the hill they turn you right back down and let you loose.”
Newby is one of the founders of Newbsanity, which for the third straight year will represent a team at the Spartan sprint.
“Whether its doing something for the first time or doing something truly crazy, from obstacle course racing to cliff jumps to snow skiing I mean we have some pretty awesome members here,” said Newby.
Competing close to home will certainly give the team an advantage on race day.
“I also love doing it in front of my kids, I feel like my kids are proud of their dad and I love having that feeling knowing that they are proud of who I am and what I do and I just like getting out there and having fun,” said Kosick.
