Johannes’ Olympic Dilemma

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers.  If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.  

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo faces a bizarre dilemma of the sort experienced only by stars and legends: either he authors another miracle in 2026—making lightning strike a second time—or he disappoints the whole sporting world. Those are Klaebo’s options as he looks forward to the Olympic Winter Games in February of 2026. After performances like the ones he delivered last season in Trondheim’s World Championships—six races, six gold medals—his options are being reduced to either miracles or disappointments. It’s particularly ironic that Klaebo could spend two weeks at the Olympic venue in Val di Fiemme, win three gold medals (Classic Sprint, Team Sprint, and Team Relay) as he is heavily favored to do, and still go home a failure in the eyes of journalists, fans, and countrymen. Well, once you win everything, everyone expects you to always win everything. No pressure, Johannes . . .

A year ago—as he looked forward to a season that would culminate in the World Championships in his hometown of Trondheim—one of Klaebo’s primary goals may have been to silence critics who pointed to his repeated failures to win distance races at major championships. Well, in Trondheim, he won the 20 k Skiathlon (with ease), then the 10 k Classic (in the absence of Finland’s Iivo Niskanen), then the 50 k (again, with ease). Just for good measure, he also won each of the events that he was absolutely expected to win (Freestyle Sprint, Team Sprint, and Team Relay). Critics were silenced, indeed. And Klaebo found himself hailed as the “best ever” in the sport of cross-country skiing. But what sort of encore is available after a performance like that? Only to do it all again . . . everything else falls short.

Other notable athletes have successfully faced similarly historic Olympic challenges/opportunities. Entering the Olympic Games of Munich in 1972, it was predicted that Mark Spitz would win seven gold medals: he did. In Beijing 2008, Michael Phelps was expected to win eight gold medals: he did. The 1980 Olympic Winter Games of Lake Placid, delivered a five gold medal performance from Eric Heiden (victories that experts had predicted). Perhaps it’s Heiden, the American speedskater, whose situation is most similar to Klaebo’s. Heiden was a media sensation. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine; he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. Heiden had barely lost a race in two years, including winning the All Around World Championship and Sprint World Championships for three years in a row while repeatedly winning all four races at each championship. Everyone expected Heiden to win five gold medals—that was every single gold medal that was available in Olympic speedskating in 1980—covering every distance from the 500 meter sprint to the 10,000 meter marathon. The uniform sponsor of Heiden’s US Speedskating Team even went so far as to provide gold racing suits for the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid.

Heiden had already proven himself capable of sweeping all the races. He’d done it before. Klaebo has too. But there is a subtle difference. Heiden ruled his sport during an era when training was still basically instinctive (unlike the scientific, closely-monitored training systems employed by Klaebo’s rivals in their desire to topple him from the podium). 1980’s training programs were old-fashioned suffer-fests in which those athletes most able to withstand the stresses of training (and over-training) were those who succeeded. No one checked pulses, no one referred to lactate levels, no one ever considered that they might over-train. They all just went hard every day. Heiden’s Coach, Dianne Holum (herself an Olympic Champion) freely distributed Heiden’s training program to his rivals. Perhaps it was an act of simple collegiality in a small and friendly sport. Or perhaps she just wasn’t worried that anyone else could do what Heiden could do. As it turns out, they all tried to copy Heiden and it backfired. When the 1980 Olympics began, Heiden’s rivals were exhausted, over-trained, athletically flat. Heiden himself, was typically blasé about the situation. On the morning of the 10,000 meter (his fifth event), with Olympic immortality on the line, he overslept, choked down a bowl of corn flakes, dashed to the rink, and set a world record. No one was really gunning for Heiden: he already had them all beat. Klaebo’s situation is different: everyone is gunning for him.

Klaebo is perched atop his sport at a time when cross-country skiing has never been more competitive. Even so, he spent the 2025 season winning at will, racking up victories, medals, and championships like there was almost no one else in the field. Certainly his Sprint dominance is unchallenged. In Trondheim, he proved equally invulnerable in distance races. In 2026, the Olympic Winter Games will give him a chance to re-assert that dominance. Spitz did it; Phelps did it; Heiden did it. And the media will say Klaebo can do it. Only two things are certain: he will try, and we will watch. If all goes well for Klaebo, then history will mark the moments.