Dan Cnossen: Navy Seal Turned Paralympic Biathlon Champion

Heartbeat: US Biathlon Podcast

Growing up on a fifth generation family farm in Topeka, Kansas was a long ways from the Paralympic ski tracks of PyeongChang. In 2018, Dan Cnossen became the first biathlete to win a Paralympic gold medal, earning a gold, four silver and a bronze in biathlon and cross country. Cnossen's story is remarkable - a decorated war veteran who lost both legs above the knee on a 2009 Navy Seal mission in Afghanistan. A year later, he was on cross country skis at West Yellowstone, Montana. Heartbeat explores his life, motivations and resiliency in an emotional hour long interview with Dan Cnossen.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Heartbeat Ep 3 - Dan Cnossen

Tom Kelly: [00:00:18] Biathlon is a unique Olympic and Paralympic event. It challenges participants with opposing athletic endeavors in a singular competition. It [00:00:30] combines the heart pumping Arabic aspects of cross-country skiing match with the intense focus of precision marksmanship. Two diametrically opposing forces testing every ounce of physical and mental strength of the athletes. Welcome to Heartbeat. The U.S. biathlon podcast. I'm your host, Tom Kelly, and I'm proud to bring you regular insights into this fascinating sport. Today's guest on Heartbeat is an amazing athlete and a remarkable American. Dan [00:01:00] Cnossen grew up on a farm outside Topeka, Kansas, an unlikely environment for a cross-country skier. In 2009, Lieutenant Commander Dan Cnossen, a leader of Navy SEAL Team One, lost both his legs in Afghanistan when he stepped on a mine. Undaunted, he found a pathway in sport from a hospital bed in Walter Reed Medical Center to the tracks and shooting ranges of Sochi and Pyeongchang. He became one of the most decorated stars of Paralympic sport, [00:01:30] winning six medals in South Korea, including a gold the first ever by a U.S. by athlete. And Dan, it's an honor to have you join us on Heartbeat, the U.S. biathlon podcast.

Dan Cnossen: [00:01:41] Thanks for having me, Tom. I'm looking forward to our talk today.

Tom Kelly: [00:01:45] So where are you coming to us from today, Dan?

Dan Cnossen: [00:01:48] Coming to you from Natick, Massachusetts, a suburb just west of Boston.

Tom Kelly: [00:01:52] A beautiful place. Is that your training base?

Dan Cnossen: [00:01:56] Yes, it is. For most of the year, minus the time that I'm away for [00:02:00] camps on snow or the occasional surf trip. Not happening this time of year. Right now, the coronavirus and everything going on.

Tom Kelly: [00:02:09] I want to get into talking surf a little bit later, but I know all of us are in kind of the same boat right now with Corona virus having dictated our life. And for athletes training and and your goal setting. What have you been doing over the last few months in Natick, Massachusetts?

Dan Cnossen: [00:02:27] Well, you know, we came back from our [00:02:30] world championships, which was prematurely canceled before the first race even began. This was going to be an Östersund Sweden and this was in early March. We came back, I believe, on March 12th. And and then since then, I've been readjusting. I'm thinking that it's not at all really appropriate to be complaining about my situation, cause I'm in a very fortunate situation where I can stay healthy and still get my workout worn outside. And a lot of people are in situations like that. So for the most part, I've been following [00:03:00] my training plan, not really going to the gym because gyms haven't been open yet, but that's OK. And I'm enjoying being outside and doing a lot of reading and maybe doing the occasional talk like we're doing and spending time with family, talking to family who are not co present. And also, I decided to start setting for the GRV again to have another test that I'll take in late September.

Tom Kelly: [00:03:26] Yeah, you know, I think like all of us, you have to improvise [00:03:30] a little bit without access to the gyms, have you improvise things around home, like for lifting weights or other kind of exercise?

Dan Cnossen: [00:03:39] Yes, I have done a little bit of that, but I just had no home gym equipment and it was in high demand. Hard to get a hold of. And I haven't really prioritized getting it. I can do some push ups and things like that and certainly can do core exercises. But really just looking at other ways of getting strength through my [00:04:00] training platforms, through hand cycling, maybe doing hills or through the prone paddleboarding that I do as another form of cross training. And that is certainly a strength intensive activity. So doing sprints and things like that. And it's just been a load for me, honestly, a nice little departure from the norm. And so that's something to be appreciative of.

Tom Kelly: [00:04:22] Well, Dan, before we get into talking about your success in PyeongChang and your motivation for the future, let's introduce the listeners [00:04:30] to your background growing up on a farm in Kansas. And, you know, I look at that and, you know, it's just this unlikely background. But tell us about life growing up in Kansas.

Dan Cnossen: [00:04:41] Well, yes, I am from a family farm in Kansas, just outside of Topeka, still within the city limits. But right at the edge of comes to Kansas as well. And the fact the farm has been in my family for five generations. This was a homestead property. I grew up playing outside a [00:05:00] lot. And I think there is a connection with the rest of my story that unfolds over time, just that I developed the love of being outside in. In nature, and that was one of the things I'm most. Grateful for with my childhood being able to grow up on a large chunk of land and have that space to be able to roam around and play and be outside every day.

Tom Kelly: [00:05:24] What was your sport background as an athlete when you were young?

Dan Cnossen: [00:05:28] I was a very [00:05:30] mediocre athlete in the team sports that I played. I did a little bit of baseball, mostly soccer wasn't really that great at soccer. The one thing I was good at in soccer is running. And I may have maybe should have been a cross-country runner, but I was always a little too focused on soccer and and a little stocky to be a great a great cross-country runner. But when I went to the U.S. Naval Academy after high school, I really wanted to make the triathlon team and was good at cycling and good at running, but [00:06:00] not at all good at swimming. And I eventually did make the triathlon team in college at the Naval Academy, but it was a very mediocre triathlete as well, just because I didn't have that swimming, swimming background that is so important for that sport.

Tom Kelly: [00:06:14] You know, growing up in Kansas, when you were in high school, what was it that motivated you to want to go to the Naval Academy and become a sailor?

Dan Cnossen: [00:06:24] You know, I think it was a variety of things, maybe it was the fact that my father had served in [00:06:30] the Marine Corps in Vietnam. Maybe it was just the fact of what I was naturally drawn to based on what I had been exposed to. Maybe it was just the way I was born. I don't exactly know. But I know that as soon as my freshman and certainly my sophomore y...