Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, after 6 Olympic gold medals, eyes another big goal
· Yahoo Sports
One can imagine how drained Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo must have felt after winning six gold medals at the Milan Cortina Olympics by skiing nearly the distance from Earth’s surface to outer space.
Yet Klaebo was even more tired the morning after an all-night celebration that followed his closing victory in the grueling 50km: a couple of beers with his Norwegian team, then a restaurant get-together with friends and family.
Visit likesport.biz for more information.
"When I came back to Norway the day after, I was super exhausted," he said. "Just had a couple of days where I was just laying on the couch, barely doing anything."
Four weeks later, Klaebo is in Lake Placid, New York, where he traveled for this weekend's Stifel World Cup Finals, the last races of the season (broadcast schedule here).
There is more history at stake, though a recent stumble put Klaebo's bid into serious doubt.
The 29-year-old from Trondheim can become the second man to sweep the sprint, distance and overall World Cup season titles in the same year after countryman Thomas Alsgaard in 1997-98.
The sprint and distance standings were introduced in 1996-97, joining the overall, which has been awarded since 1982. Klaebo already clinched his sixth overall title (tying Norwegian Bjorn Daehlie's record) and eighth sprint title (three more than any man or woman).
He trails Norwegian Harald Oestberg Amundsen by three points in the distance standings, a table he has never topped. That margin is smaller than the difference between finishing first and second in one race, so results in Friday's 10km classic (individual) and Sunday's finale, a 20k freestyle (mass start), will be critical.
But it wasn't announced until late Tuesday that Klaebo would trek to the 1980 Olympic host site nestled in the Adirondacks. As of Thursday evening, he still wasn't totally sure he will compete.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo’s stunning uphill sprint goes viralNorwegian cross-country superstar Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo’s explosive dash up a hill on skis during the 2026 Milan Cortina Games went viral.After his Olympic triumphs, Klaebo went right back to racing on the World Cup. Exactly one week after his sixth gold medal, he won a sprint in Falun, Swede, the first of four consecutive victories through March 8.
Then on March 12, in the picturesque city sprint in Drammen, Norway, American Ben Ogden’s skis got caught up with Norwegian Aron Aakre Rysstad’s skis. Ogden fell in front of Klaebo. The cross-country king could not avoid it and also hit the snow hard.
The next day, a post on Klaebo’s social media showed him giving a thumbs-up from a medical center bed.
“Took a fall yesterday and hit my head pretty hard, but luckily everything is all good in the hood ❤️," it read. “Ended up with a concussion so I’ll take some days off from both training and the internet just to make sure everything settles properly. Only got one head, so have to take good care of it .”
It was the kind of adversity — unpredictable, but crashes happen in the sport — that puts Klaebo's Olympics in perspective (and his 2025 World Championships in Trondheim, where he also went six for six).
Everything had to go right in Italy, including things he couldn't control. And it did. Even though his lungs began feeling sore after his fourth of six events, when he won an interval start freestyle race for the first time in 22 career tries on the senior international level.
"I had hoped that I was going to be able to do all three World Cup globes — sprint, overall and also the distance," he said. "But, yeah, we'll see if I'm able to do that with the how the last week has been."
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo’s secret weapon is his grandfatherJohannes Hoesflot Klaebo has a special relationship with his grandfather, Kare, who bought him his first pair of skis. The 83-year-old is still Klaebo’s coach, and Klaebo credits Kare for all his success.Klaebo already started gameplanning for the 2026-27 season. He will soon sit down with his grandfather and coach, Kare, to map it out in detail. Maybe after he vacations somewhere warm with fiancée Pernille Dosvik.
"I will need to spend some time during the spring now to really figure out where is the next goal going to be," he said. "I think I will need to find a new motivation in terms of what I will do. I think the good part is that I still like winning World Cup races, and I still like the fact where I put on my bib, and I like the competition part. That's kind of a good start."
He also committed to a run for a fourth Olympics in 2030 in the French Alps, where he said it's possible he tries to do all six races again.
"The older I get, the harder it's going to be on the sprint part, most likely," he said. "There is a few young skiers coming up and really putting pressure."
He's also thinking about the 2034 Games in a place with which he is familiar: Utah. The last few years, Klaebo went to Park City in August and September for altitude training.
His physical therapist, Megan Rowlands Stowe, lives a short drive from Soldier Hollow, where 2034 Olympic cross-country skiing events will be held.
By then Klaebo will be 37, two years older than any man to win individual Olympic cross-country skiing gold. Klaebo is already the youngest man to win Olympic cross-country skiing gold, doing so at 21 in 2018.
"I've spoken to my physio that if we're able to do everything right with the body, and the motivation is still there, I think that can be possible," he said of competing in 2034, "but that's a long way."
Jessie Diggins goes into her final cross-country skiing races with ideas for her next chapterJessie Diggins races for the last time before retirement this weekend, airing on NBC Sports and Peacock.