Dan Kosick was born and raised in Johnson City, New York. In 1993, at the age of 15 years old, Dan was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his right leg. As a result of the cancerous tumor, Dan had his right leg amputated above the knee and received 6 months of chemotherapy. Dan was a member of his high school’s football, swim and lacrosse teams both before and after his amputation.

Dan began competing in adaptive sports when some friends from a local ski area introduced Dan to alpine ski racing. Three years after Dan’s amputation he earned a position on the United States Adaptive Alpine Ski Team. During Dan’s tenure on the United StatesAdaptive Alpine Ski Team he was ranked amongst the top 5 adaptive male skiers in his category in the world. This recognition was the result of several top 5 results in world cup events and a 4 th place finish in the Downhill at the 1998 Nagano, Japan Paralympics and a 4 the place in the Giant Slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City, UT Paralympics.

While Dan was a member of the ski team he received his bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University in Human Development and competed in road cycling, mountain bike, and triathlon races around the country. Dan retired from the ski team in 2002 and soon after married his high school sweetheart in 2003. Dan went back to Binghamton University and earned his graduate degree of a Master’s in Social Work in 2006. Dan, his wife and their two daughters currently reside in Endicott, NY.

Since 2013, Dan has maintained his involvement in athletics by becoming an avid obstacle course racer (OCR). In 2017, Dan was named a Tough Mudder Ambassador and has completed countless number of events. These events include ultra-endurance distances such as two World’s Toughest Mudder events, which is a 24 hour obstacle course race that was held in the brutal environment of the desert outside of Las Vegas, NV. Dan set an above knee amputee world record of completing an impressive 50 miles at the 2017 World’s Toughest Mudder.

In 2018, Dan was invited to be a member of the Range of Motion Project’s (ROMP) elite climbing team. This team of able bodied and amputee athletes successfully summited 19,347’ volcano Cotopaxi, Ecuador on 9/28/2018. Other impressive endurance feats Dan has completed in less than 24 hours since 2018 include the iconic Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R) at the Grand Canyon, the Pemi Loop (ranked as top 3 most challenging day hikes in the country), VT5, Devil’s Path, Cranberry Lake 50 (CL50) and 50 For the Fallen.

Dan is currently a Leki and IronHike brand ambassador, Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) and Team A Step Ahead Prosthetic athlete, and works fulltime as a School Social Worker. In addition, Dan volunteers for Make-A-Wish Foundation and coaches girls’ lacrosse. When invited, Dan enjoys being a motivational speaker for all ages. The title of his presentation is “Obstacles are Opportunities”.

Follow Dan on Instagram @dank18