How Fast could a Men's Olympic XC Skier run a 5k?

Glenn Randall - Wikipedia

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Glenn Randall

Glenn Randall (born 3 September 1986) is an American male cross-country skier and mountain runner, twice world champion at the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships (2010). References External links Glenn Randall...

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Dude looks massive compared to most short, skinny elites.

Glenn Randall - Men's Cross Country - Dartmouth College Athletics

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Glenn Randall - Men's Cross Country - Dartmouth College Athletics

Glenn RandallDistance - Won the Alfred Watson Award at the college’s Celebration of Athletic Excellence as the best male athlete for the 2008-09 school...

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Randall:

Dude was a physics major at Dartmouth.

Not sure what he does now, but with a physics degree he can transition to many high powered positions.

classic shuffle style is easy, but slower. skate style (yes you are skating with long skates) is harder technique

Glenn Randall – FasterSkier https://share.google/pcxZA8fVLZQzf0mz0

Impressive

Most xc skiers include some running in their training, so naturally there is some crossover at times. The most famous example is probably multiple Olympic gold medallist Therese Johaug, who ran a 31:32 10k during the pandemic (basically on pure VO2max and with very poor running economy, was quite funny to watch). Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson, who won gold and silver in both the skiathlon and the 10k individual start at these Olympics, competed at European Athletics age-group championships in their youth, but soon shifted their focus fully to xc skiing. World Athletics lists a 9:29 3k for Andersson and a 9:47 3k for Karlsson, both when they were 17 years old.

On the men’s side, the most prominent recent example is probably Didrik Tonseth, who finished 24th at the 2019 European Cross Country Championships, beating athletes such as Dever, Foppen, and Habz. However, he had only run a 29:48 track 10k earlier that year, so he likely benefits significantly from the inclusion of some hills. The same probably applies to other xc skiers with some running talent, so I don’t think a truly fast 5k would happen unless an xc skier does specialised running training over a prolonged period of time.

Just looked at Tonseth's Instagram and it's 99% cross country skiing with also some roller skiing and almost nothing about his running except I saw some photographs from a trail race - the dude is an absolute monster - aerobic monster I mean. His VO2 max must be up there...in the stratosphere.

What's impressive about their roller skiing is how much they use their arms to push for speed so they're really getting a total absolute total body workout - these guys are The Real deal.

It's not particularly hard to learn to ski. It is difficult to develop the technique to ski at an elite level, similar to mastering other technique driven sports such as swimming.

Classical (diagonal stride) skiing is easier to learn, but reputedly more difficult to master than is skate style skiing.

from reading this thread it would seem like 13-15 minutes would be a good ballpark

For some reason this is men only, but Kendall Kramer on the women's team (top 40 in the skiathlon) was NCAA xc running DII runner up in 2024 as well as NCAA xc ski champ in 2025.

Sophia Laukli was on the last Olympic team in skiing and then won USATF mountain running series and had some high places on the world scene for trails. How soon we forget.

And in the past there were a number of double all Americans in XC running and skiing. You don't see that as often anymore, with True and Randall perhaps being the most recent and that was 15+ years ago.

It's not too hard to learn imo, and it's a great form of cross training. Skate skiing will definitely get your heart rate up, especially when you are getting started and haven't made your technique very efficient yet. Working muscle groups for lateral motions in skate actually helped me rehab some chronic injuries (hip labral tears).

Olav Aleksander Bu is one of the best endurance sports scientists in the world, having worked closely with all the best Norwegians in running, cycling, triathlon, and skiing, along with some of the world's best runners. One thing that he has said in long interviews about his work (including with Kristian Blummenfeldt) is that athletes in skiing and cycling tend to do more VO2 max testing in their training programs than elite runners do. Cyclists do the most, so much so that they have figured out some ways to manipulate their body/the test to get an incrementally higher VO2 score, even if it doesn't actually mean they are fitter than their baseline score. This is all to say that I think there is some bias in the scores for highest VO2 of all-time. Runners don't do the test as much as other athletes.

It wouldn't surprise me though, if the best engine in the world was an XC skier. It makes sense because they have to recruit more muscles in their upper body at max output. I also think it's not a surprise if these sports have athletes with higher VO2, because they allow you to train a lot longer by not beating up your muscles and joints. Elite runners are on the low end of training hours for endurance athletes because running is the highest impact. Guys in these other sports can race more frequently, do more threshold, and log 6 hour days in their base building phase without getting beat up.

Hoffman was Colorado HS cross country running champion in 2006. His 3A winning time of 16:45 might not be impressive but he won by 13 seconds. It's fair to say that time doesn't mean much when you win by that much.

Olympic gold medalist Kikkan Randall was 3 time Alaska state champion in the 1600, 2x state champ in cross country running and 2x state champ in the 3200.

Kendall Kramer, on the US team (got a start at 10K individual this week), was the runner up at D2 cross country running nationals 15 months ago. Her college running and skiing teammate, Rosie Fordham, was 8th at D2 nationals and had beaten Kramer at regionals for the win there. Fordham is skiing for Australia at the Olympics and has had a silver at U23 Worlds in skiing.

Kramer also won a pile of AK state championships in cross country running (3x plus a runner up as frosh) and track (won 1600/3200 double at state all 3 years, didn't race senior year).

The rules limit the length of the poles for classic because the skiers became so strong at double polling that they were abandoning using their legs at all. Pure upper body strength is faster than any kicking technique.

Pre wasn't very good. Good is 12:45 for the 5K. Pre would barely be national class today.

They aren't nearly as malnourished and scrawny as a pro distance runner. That said, they have superior muscle strength, cardio endurance and CO2 max. The best Nordic guys could probably run 13:30 pretty much one season after training specifically for it

Pre was pretty good relative to his competition at the time. I think it's safe to say that if he lived and trained in this era, and wore super spikes, he would be competitive. Surely a sub13 guy, if not sub 12:45.

Was trying to remember if *that* was the Randall—the dude who went out like a maniac at Boston a few years back, subjecting himself to no little mockery, good though he was.

I wouldn't put too much stock in that VO2max value... Obviously haven't seen the whole data set, but from the videos of that test that were circulating, it seems likely there were some errors in the met cart calibration resulting in inflated Vo2 values.

in the 1990's there was a Cross Country Skier named Paul Tergat who ran Sub 13/ Sub 26 for the 5k/10k!