{"id":1896,"date":"2013-09-05T11:42:56","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T15:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/?p=1896"},"modified":"2013-10-03T20:45:07","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T00:45:07","slug":"nick-kossor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/post\/nick-kossor\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming \u201cNicks\u201d \u2026Kossor\u2019s Bumpy Road to Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the age of 16<\/strong>, after having\u00a0already been in Judo<\/strong> for 11<\/strong> years,\u00a0Nick Kossor<\/strong> decided to put making an Olympic<\/strong> team at the top of his priority list.\u00a0 As if this goal wasn’t challenging enough, life (the road travelled by each of us) had a few unexpected turns and bumps. In the case of Nick Kosser<\/strong>, his\u00a0“bumps” and “turns” might be considered more along the lines of\u00a0“floods” and ‘earthquakes” on his route to becoming an Olympian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is one (1)<\/strong> word that sends shivers down the spine of every athlete, and it is just as common as the\u00a0more motivational words\u00a0of “training”<\/strong> or “drilling”<\/strong> or \u201cwinning\u201d<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That word is “Injury”.\u00a0<\/strong> And it is the word that has plagued Kossor’s<\/strong> career from early on.\u00a0 After finishing his sophomore year in high school in\u00a0southern Pennsylvania, Kossor<\/strong> left his friends and family to live and train with the best coach the sport has to\u00a0offer, Silver Medalist Jason Morris<\/strong> (92 Barcelona Games).\u00a0 The Jason Morris Judo Center<\/strong>, located in Glenville, NY, owned and operated by the 4x Olympian<\/strong> along with his wife Teri,<\/strong> was Kossor’s<\/strong> final destination.\u00a0 Just as they have done for other Judo Athletes from all over the world, Jason and Teri also graciously opened the doors of their home to Kossor<\/strong>, who was too young to live on his own while pursuing his sporting dream.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “There was definitely an adjustment period for me moving away from my family at a young age, but I never saw it as a massive sacrifice because I knew that in order to reach my potential in judo I had to train with Jason & Teri.\u00a0 It was simply something I wanted more than\u00a0anything,”\u00a0<\/strong> Kossor stated.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Transitioning and training was going smoothly for a solid year, and Kossor<\/strong> was en route to making the coveted Junior World Team<\/strong>. \u00a0Unfortunately, and without warning, Kossor<\/strong> tore the ACL<\/strong> in his right knee during a training session.\u00a0 The injury required surgical reconstruction and massive amounts of Physical Therapy. The combination of surgeons, therapists, and pure determination to achieve his goals resulted in a minimal length of recovery time, as he was back on the mat competing in five (5)<\/strong> months.\u00a0 “I was eating and sleeping rehab, even when I wasn’t scheduled for PT (Physical Therapy), and I was always doing everything I could to get back to training as quickly as possible,”<\/strong> Kossor noted.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nonetheless, as if it were part of a cruel joke, Kossor<\/strong> sustained another ACL<\/strong> injury nearly one (1)<\/strong> year later during another training session, but this time to his left knee.\u00a0 This injury could not have come at a worse time, because it was right before the Nationals, which served as a Qualifier for the Senior World Team<\/strong>.\u00a0 After missing out on another World Team<\/strong> berth, Kossor<\/strong> began the process of recovery all over again with the same team he had before, (Orthopedic surgeon Howard Levy and Physical Therapist Thomas Houghtalen).\u00a0 After another five (5)<\/strong> months off the mat, Kossor<\/strong> continued his ascension up the\u00a0National Roster and World Rankings, moving towards the\u00a0 2012 Olympics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After spending close to three (3)<\/strong> years as the #1<\/strong> ranked Judo Athlete<\/strong> in the US, Kossor<\/strong> appeared to be a definite for the 2012 Olympics<\/strong> at the London Games<\/strong>.\u00a0 Sadly,\u00a0disaster struck again at a competition in\u00a0Paris, France in 2011<\/strong>.\u00a0 While fighting the #1<\/strong> ranked Judo Athlete in the world at the time, Kossor<\/strong> tore his rotator cuff and labrum in\u00a0his right shoulder and was forced to cancel his European competitive tour.\u00a0 Without hesitation, Kossor<\/strong> reunited with his team of doctors and trainers to start rehabilitation for the third time in his career.\u00a0 Although the recovery process was quicker than usual, the timing of the injury did not leave enough time to qualify for the 2012\u00a0Olympics<\/strong>.\u00a0 To his credit,\u00a0 though, Kossor<\/strong> remains the #1<\/strong> ranked Judo Athlete<\/strong> in the US since the 2012 Olympic Games<\/strong> at his weight class of -60kg (132lbs.) and is currently ranked #33<\/strong> in the world.\u00a0 He is also currently a favorite to make the 2016 US Olympic Judo Team<\/strong> in his weight class.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The future is not set, and in the world of sports anything can happen.\u00a0 As Athletes, success and failure in a sport is not determined by how many Titles you claim, or the number of Matches you win.\u00a0 Chasing your DREAM<\/strong> and working toward your goals is really what is most important.\u00a0 At the end of the day or career, what satisfies one’s soul most, and fills it to overflowing, is how hard one works and how professional one has acted in pursuit of the Dream<\/strong>.\u00a0 In summary, Nick adds, “Sacrifice, determination, professionalism, endurance, and consistency are all words we should aspire to have attached to our names as athletes.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the age of 16, after having\u00a0already been in Judo for 11 years,\u00a0Nick Kossor decided to put making an Olympic team at the top of his priority list.\u00a0 As if this goal wasn’t challenging enough, life (the road travelled by each of us) had a few unexpected turns and bumps. In the case of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1901,"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions\/1901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/essportscouncil.org\/liberty-games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}