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TRONDHEIM, NORWAY — After winning Thursday’s world championships-opening sprint here, Norwegian superstar Johannes Høsflot Klæbo posed for photos with the new model of Speedmax cross-country skis recently unveiled by his sponsor, Fischer, the giant Austrian winter sports company.
But if you looked carefully at Klæbo’s skis during the race, they were different, and, unusually, they were dated: The pair was several years old, a Fischer official confirmed in an interview Sunday.
Typically, new skis are more dynamic and give athletes a more stable platform on the snow, said Gerhard Urain, Fischer’s head of nordic racing. But the older pair Klæbo used Thursday are especially good in the wet, sloppy snow conditions that have prevailed in Trondheim for the past week, according to Urain.
“And then also, when they have good memories with the skis — when they use them in these conditions, they are confident,” he said.
“It was the right choice for him on this day,” Urain added, noting that Klæbo’s skis appeared to be running fast compared to other athletes’ on Thursday.
On the surface, Klæbo’s victory on older skis could complicate Fischer’s marketing pitch for the new Speedmaxes, which, according to the company, are characterized by “extreme lightness.”
But coaches and ski technicians said it’s increasingly rare for older pairs of skis like Klæbo’s to still perform competitively in tests against newer models.
Urain noted that, just a few weeks after the introduction of the new Speedmaxes, many other top competitors have been choosing to race on them — suggesting that generally, they’re performing better than the dozens of pairs of skis already in athletes’ quivers.
In Sunday’s women’s skiathlon, the two top Norwegian finishers, Therese Johaug and Heidi Weng, both used new Speedmaxes.
“They got the skis three weeks ago, and they’re racing them, using them in the championships,” Urain said.
The durability of Klæbo’s race-winning skis also is an argument for Fischer’s equipment in and of itself, noted Matt Whitcomb, one of the U.S. Ski Team coaches in Trondheim.
“A ski that keeps winning stays in the fleet. I know the ski companies love to have the new graphics. But what a great testimony to Toyota when you see a ’91 Corolla in, just, great condition cruising down the road,” Whitcomb said. “There’s no better accolade to receive.”
Nathaniel Herz
Nat Herz is an Alaska-based journalist who moonlights for FasterSkier as an occasional reporter and podcast host. He was FasterSkier's full-time reporter in 2010 and 2011.
