What could you do with someone who would have been like an 8:40 guy in HS?
That's my point. Klaebo would have been an 3:56/8:40 type guy in HS. There is nobody XC skiing in the US with that type of talent. It's simply a function of how few places in the US can even have XC ski teams.
In the US, you'll see around 6500 HS kids participate in XC skiing. It's around 1.1M for track and over 400k for XC. So you can be a 9:20 type in the HS and be at the very top of the XC skiing talent pool. In track you'd be just another good runner.
Again, this is no shade towards anybody. But the whole of the winter Olympics pulls from very small talent pools.
What could you do with someone who would have been like an 8:40 guy in HS?
That's my point. Klaebo would have been an 3:56/8:40 type guy in HS. There is nobody XC skiing in the US with that type of talent. It's simply a function of how few places in the US can even have XC ski teams.
In the US, you'll see around 6500 HS kids participate in XC skiing. It's around 1.1M for track and over 400k for XC. So you can be a 9:20 type in the HS and be at the very top of the XC skiing talent pool. In track you'd be just another good runner.
Again, this is no shade towards anybody. But the whole of the winter Olympics pulls from very small talent pools.
It’s extremely unlikely that Klæbo could have run that fast as a HSer. Also, with his strength and 3:56 ability, he would have run 8:22. Even in ski-crazy Norway, a kid with 3:56 talent, there’s a good chance he would ended up on the track.
We don’t know anything about his stride efficiency as a runner, or his leg speed. Armstrong was an aerobic powerhouse and topped out with a 2:46 marathon.
Klæbo has an extreme anaerobic capacity, which allows him to win everything. On longer hills, where VO2max and pure endurance matter more, he's probably not the best, but he's good there too.
Perhaps he could have been a good 800/1500 runner, if he had focused on running from a young age.
If Klaebo took a VO2 max test it would be the highest result ever recorded.
I hope he does a marathon or a triathlon to show us just how fit he is relative to other athletes. If he only runs something like a 2:22 marathon, it would NOT tarnish his legacy. It would just be cool to see how cross country ski fitness carries over to other sports.
I agree he is dominate, but like others said there isn’t the same level of competition in skiing.
the Winter Olympics are cool and what not but only a handful of countries take the seriously. Even then those countries don’t have a lot of population actually xc skiing.
Africa, South America, most of Asia/ Australia does not care about XC skiing.
Comparing their sport to the 1500, the whole world runs the 1500m. Probably 15-20 countries have had guys in the finals recently.
He’s the best in a sport no one does, still the best and incredible, but he’s racing doo doo depth
Eric Heiden won all five speed skating gold medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics, from 500m to 10,000m. Is that also "the most supcious performance ever"?
I agree he is dominate, but like others said there isn’t the same level of competition in skiing.
the Winter Olympics are cool and what not but only a handful of countries take the seriously. Even then those countries don’t have a lot of population actually xc skiing.
Africa, South America, most of Asia/ Australia does not care about XC skiing.
Comparing their sport to the 1500, the whole world runs the 1500m. Probably 15-20 countries have had guys in the finals recently.
He’s the best in a sport no one does, still the best and incredible, but he’s racing doo doo depth
Yeah, that sprint was an indictment of the poor level of talent in XC skiing. It was like watching a 3:45 miler beat up on a bunch of 4:05 milers.
Pro tip to you HS kids out there. Want to get into Dartmouth or one of the top NESCAC schools...do cross country skiing. You can run track times that wouldn't get you a look in D3 but if you can post ok results in XC skiing you'll get in no problem (also assuming you have top grades like a lot of HS runners).
That's my point. Klaebo would have been an 3:56/8:40 type guy in HS. There is nobody XC skiing in the US with that type of talent. It's simply a function of how few places in the US can even have XC ski teams.
In the US, you'll see around 6500 HS kids participate in XC skiing. It's around 1.1M for track and over 400k for XC. So you can be a 9:20 type in the HS and be at the very top of the XC skiing talent pool. In track you'd be just another good runner.
Again, this is no shade towards anybody. But the whole of the winter Olympics pulls from very small talent pools.
It’s extremely unlikely that Klæbo could have run that fast as a HSer. Also, with his strength and 3:56 ability, he would have run 8:22. Even in ski-crazy Norway, a kid with 3:56 talent, there’s a good chance he would ended up on the track.
We don’t know anything about his stride efficiency as a runner, or his leg speed. Armstrong was an aerobic powerhouse and topped out with a 2:46 marathon.
No one with his ski talent i Norge will waste it on the track and pass by the glory and extreme wealth.
As an endurance reference point for how crazy good Klaebo is, is the fact that one of his competitors is Edvin Anger, who ran 31:37 for 10k while weighing 100kg off season. And Edvin Anger is a sprint specialist and far from a runner. Klaebo dominates Anger in every xc skiing discipline and weighs 73kg, which is far better for running obviously.
I would bet on Klaebo to run a 27:XX 10k today without even being a runner.
His sport is definitely the most competitive sport in Norway. You know the home of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the "Norwegian method" and a nation who's athletes have registered the highest VO2 max scores ever recorded. The Ingebrigtsen's themselves started in Nordic skiing and defaulted to running because they were not good enough at it to be competitive in their own country.
Sure, 1000s of kids in the US and Europe run and do XC, way more than nordic skiing....but conversely the very best athletes in the US and Europe instantly gravitate to football (soccer), football ('Merican), basketball, and baseball. Absolutely guarantee that even with fast stars like Hocker, Ingebrigsten, Fischer and Hoey in T&F there would be even faster stars if the very best of the best athletes in the US and Europe did T&F from a young age instead of their chosen sport. (Or for that matter all the couch potatoes who have God given talent ever discovered their talent.)
Why does this matter in this argument? When you say that Nordic Skiing "is not a competitive sport" it is false. It is extremely competitive in the country with some of the greatest athletes on the planet. One of T&Fs greatest athletes actually quit nordic because he couldn't be competitive in it. Further, to diminish the sport by saying it isn't competitive ignores the fact that distance running itself doesn't represent the best athletes on the planet because those athletes dont participate. Part of the reason East African athletes dominate distance running is precisely because in those countries, running is the dominant sport. Same thing in Norway with Nordic skiing.
Seeing him run up a steep mountain of snow with skis on his feet at close to 5:00 mile pace is honestly one of the more impressive things I have witnessed in the Olympics.
I’m not going to speculate whether he could be a world class distance runner, but that dude would have no problem breaking 14 for 5k.
I agree he is dominate, but like others said there isn’t the same level of competition in skiing.
the Winter Olympics are cool and what not but only a handful of countries take the seriously. Even then those countries don’t have a lot of population actually xc skiing.
Africa, South America, most of Asia/ Australia does not care about XC skiing.
Comparing their sport to the 1500, the whole world runs the 1500m. Probably 15-20 countries have had guys in the finals recently.
He’s the best in a sport no one does, still the best and incredible, but he’s racing doo doo depth
Yeah, that sprint was an indictment of the poor level of talent in XC skiing. It was like watching a 3:45 miler beat up on a bunch of 4:05 milers.
Pro tip to you HS kids out there. Want to get into Dartmouth or one of the top NESCAC schools...do cross country skiing. You can run track times that wouldn't get you a look in D3 but if you can post ok results in XC skiing you'll get in no problem (also assuming you have top grades like a lot of HS runners).
Do you cross country ski? Have you ever raced? If so what kind of results did you have? You don't really seem to have a grasp of reality here.
Making the top three at a school like Dartmouth is very difficult, and you pretty much have to be national class at the U23 level to do so. Usually, they'll have six or eight skiers fighting for three scoring spots. Schools like Colorado and Utah only recruit the very top, internationally ranked athletes. You can be on podiums for junior nationals and they won't give you the time of day.
"Klaebo won every single event at the world champs. From the sprint to the 50k! 6 golds!"
Is there any sport on earth where that wouldn't be the most supcious performance ever?
Would you be suspicious of a kenyan winning the 200m- marathon with ease?
XC skiing is notoriously doped and will never shed that image.
I saw some crazy theatrics at a FIS event years ago, a distance pursuit where every starter had to stop and sign a big "no doping pledge" billboard. Absurd propaganda that only showed desperation
besides dope, technique and equipment are also big factors
Seeing him run up a steep mountain of snow with skis on his feet at close to 5:00 mile pace is honestly one of the more impressive things I have witnessed in the Olympics.
I’m not going to speculate whether he could be a world class distance runner, but that dude would have no problem breaking 14 for 5k.
That uphill sprint was insane - just completely blew away the field. It reminded me of Jim Ryun's famous 1500 at Dusseldorf when he turned the jets on with 300 to go.