Colorado State University Athletics
The Gentle Giant
4/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
Colorado State sophomore Magnus Lohse is one of the top throwers in the nation. The Ram Report?s Gina Zaccagnini was granted a chance to sit with Magnus and find out more about the gentle giant.
The Ram Report: What is it that brought you all the way from Sweden to CSU?
Magnus Lohse: I had enough of Sweden and I wanted to go somewhere else. I didn?t feel like going to Swedish college and wanted to try something else. Why not go somewhere else and get my college paid for.
TRR: So you are getting a scholarship?
ML: Yeah, full ride. The thing is college in Sweden doesn?t cost anything. You just pay for books.
TRR: So did you just twirl your finger and pick a state on the map to go to school?
ML: I think I had 10 full scholarships. I really wanted to go to UCLA when I was young and unknowing but then I found out that the coach doesn?t coach foreign students. My coach in Sweden knew the coach here and I also had an old friend, Mattias Borrman, who went here so I had some Swedish connections. I thought about going to Georgia but there were too many bugs.
People asked me, ?Why do you want to go to Colorado? It is all cold and always snowy there.? But it is pretty much the same as Sweden. It is funny because people here think Sweden is really cold and snowy and people in Sweden think Colorado is cold and snowy, but they are about the same.
TRR: What surprised you the most about Colorado? Was it hard to adjust?
ML: Adjusting for me was really easy. I kind of expected it. What surprises me is how many cops there are here. In Sweden I was home for a month and I saw one police car. When I came back here, in 15 minutes I saw a bunch. When I decide to get a car I will probably get a few tickets because they are everywhere.
TRR: Have you had any run-ins with any of the cops?
ML: Ha Ha. My first semester they stopped me and asked me if I played football. I told them I was on the track team. They kept asking me why I wasn?t on the football team. They said, ?You should play football. Football is great!? They got all mad at me.
TRR: Have there been any cultural clashes that put you in an awkward or embarrassing situation?
ML: Um, not really. I am pretty good at embarrassing myself.
TRR: How so?
ML: I don?t know, I?m a big guy. People can see you everywhere when you are big. If they ask what happened somewhere, people say, ?I don?t know, but Magnus was there.?
TRR: With a name like ?Magnus? do people expect you to be huge?
ML: I have heard this a couple times. People tell me that every Magnus they know is really big and really tough. They think Magnuses are really big. I?m not that big.
TRR: How big are you?
ML: 6?6? 300lbs. That?s pretty good, not bad.
TRR: Yeah, that?s not bad!
ML: I have a lot of pronunciation errors like ?Mangus?.
TRR: Mangus?
ML: Yeah, my first roommate called me Mangus for the first two months. I said, ?My name is Magnus. Not ?Mangus?. M-a-g-n-u-s.?
TRR: Tell me about your competition with the Arrhenius brothers from BYU. I know they are Swedish and you just beat them at nationals. How do you feel about that?
ML: Yeah, I just beat them. Nick beat me about a year ago. I think the only time I beat Nick was at nationals. He is good competition. I?m a little upset that he is two years older and I'm still a sophomore, but it is still good competition. It?s kind of fun because we have our own secret language that we speak. It?s not like we speak Swedish that much during competitions, but we do a little.
TRR: Do you look forward to competing against them more so than anyone else?
ML: Yeah, he is pretty much the only one in the conference that gets me going.
TRR: What is one of the funniest moments you have had at CSU in track?
ML: Hmmm, haha. I have fun all the time.
TRR: Do you do anything to the coaches to get under their skin or play jokes on them?
ML: I pulled jokes about steroids a couple times. I tell them I bought some stuff from this guy or talked to this agent about some stuff. They pick on me more than I pick on them but I like it
TRR: How do they pick on you?
ML: I don?t think I can mention that in the paper, haha.
TRR: Have you ever taken advantage of being from another country to play a joke on someone?
ML: Haha, yeah. I use it quite a lot. Every time I do something in class that is stupid I blame it on being from another country. I don?t ever use the understand part, but every once in a while I talk about not being able to help it because I?m from another country.
I?ll speak Swedish every once in awhile if I?m on the phone with my family or something and the guys will look at me and make sounds.
In speech class I said the whole speech in Swedish one time.
TRR: How did you get away with that?
ML: It was an in-class exercise and you were just supposed to get up there and talk about something. It was cool but sort of random.
TRR: How did the class act, did they just stare at you?
ML: They just stared at me like, this guy is kind of weird.
TRR: Did they expect it?
ML: I asked in the beginning so they were like, sure go ahead. It is kind of similar, but actually, its not. It is pretty hard to tell what I am talking about. I bet they liked it though.
TRR: Yeah, they were probably jealous.
ML: Yeah, probably. They probably wish they could speak that jibberish mumble language.
TRR: Ha ha. Probably. Is there anything else people should know?
ML: Not really. Thank you.
TRR: Thank you!
