Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, Norway's cross-country king, completes historic feat at world championships

New York Times

08-03-2025

Heading to the final turn, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo took the lead one last time, passing Sweden's William Poromaa. The Norwegian cross-country skiing great had turned the sport's marathon race into a sprint. And there's no beating Klaebo in that.
Klaebo raced to the finish, and just before he crossed the line, he peeked back at the other contenders who had faded over the final kilometers of Saturday's men's 50km mass start at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. He raised his hands to a portion of the more than 100,000 home fans that packed the mountainside in Trondheim, celebrating a victory that completed an unprecedented medal sweep and stamped his place in cross-country lore.
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Klaebo's win in the 50km gave him gold medals in all six events at the world championships, the first time anyone has done that since the event expanded to six events — in 2001 for the men, 2003 for the women. Russia's Yelena Välbe is the only other skier to pull off a golden sweep at the biennial world championships, winning all five women's events in 1997.
'I feel like I've been working so hard to just be here and try to be in my best shape, and managing that and winning six out of six here, it's just crazy,' Klaebo said after the race. 'I don't have any words.'
Klaebo finished the six laps around Trondheim's Granasen ski center in 1:57:47.1, 2.1 seconds of Poromaa.
A renowned sprinter and 95-time winner on the World Cup tour, Klaebo's place in the sport's history was already well secured. He entered worlds with five Olympic gold medals to his name, along with three golds in each of the previous three world championships. All of those, though, had come in sprints and relays prior to this week.
At these world championships, Klaebo won his six golds in 10 grueling days, taking the sprint freestyle on Feb. 27, the 20km skiathlon (which combines the classical and freestyle methods) on March 1 and the 10km interval start on Tuesday while also anchoring gold-medal Norwegian squads in the team sprint classical on Wednesday and the 4X7.5km relay on Thursday.
Klaebo was already the men's cross-country name to watch at the 2026 Olympics, but his results in the distance races in the past week make him an even more formidable threat across the entire Olympic program, which runs from Feb. 7-22 in Tesero, Italy.
He had come close to winning the 50km world title before. Klaebo was the silver medalist at worlds in 2023 and crossed the line first in 2021 but was disqualified for obstruction — making Saturday's win all the more meaningful for him.
'I feel like I've said this every single race here, that this has been the best day so far, but today, it's just crazy,' Klaebo said. 'Winning a 50k, so close two years ago, disqualified four years ago — it's been a crazy journey when it comes to 50ks.'
In the final kilometers Saturday, Klaebo raced in a pack of five in the leading group, including Poromaa and three fellow Norwegians — Harald Oestberg Amundsen, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget and Simen Hegsted Krueger. The others kept a brisk pace throughout the race, hoping to tire Klaebo and distance themselves before the race came down to his specialty — an all-out dash to the finish.
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'I was struggling on Lap 3 there,' Klaebo said. '(Amundsen) was putting some high pace, but I kind of managed to stay really on the back there, and I feel like I got helped by the hundreds of thousands of people out there.'
But in the late stages of the race, the others dropped off. Amundsen faded around the 44km mark. Then, Nyenget fell while leading with just under three kilometers left. Klaebo was right behind and dodged his tumbling countryman to take the lead. Krueger then moved to the front and still led with a kilometer to go, but he couldn't hang with Klaebo and Poromaa has they amped up the speed.
Klaebo waited for his time behind Poromaa, bouncing to the inside and passing him down a hill heading into the last turn. From there, the world's best sprinter did what he does and capped his historic 10-day stretch.
Krueger finished 8.5 seconds back to win bronze. Nyenget was fourth, 18.6 seconds behind. Amundsen took fifth, 51.8 seconds off the pace.
After it was over, Klaebo sat down, leaned against an advertisement along the course and put his head in his hands, absorbing the moment.
'This is way more than I expected and dreamed of,' he said, 'so it's unbelievable.'
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(Top photo of Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo crossing the finish line Saturday: Lars Baron / Getty Images)