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

Superb thread, fwiw. Full of interesting insights about a subject that hasn't, to my knowledge, been explored much at all here. Bookmark it!

How would you rank the following sports with the amount of cross-over in elite ability

running - cross country skiing

running - cycling (climbing specialist)

speed skating - cycling (sprint specialist)

Gu Schumacher (American who got 24th in the 10k skiathlon at Olympics this year) ran a 15:40 XC 5k at 15 years old on probably one of the harder courses in the country, that also was a classic Alaskan mud fest from melted snow. Seeing him do most of his training in the summer on roller skis and some trail runs opened my eyes to engine needed for xc skiing. Klaebo with a few weeks of run training could definitely run low 13 minutes.

Ava Earl, who runs at Northwestern, was a really good XC skier and high school and would go on to run 4:42/9:04/15:42 on the track in college.

Libbie Hickman (2000 Olympian, 10,000m) XC skied almost exclusively through the winter, then slowly (over a month or so) transitioned to running in the spring.

I think Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen also did a lot of XC skiing.

who cares

Bjørn Dæhlie (8 Olympic Gold Medals, 6 World Cup titles) who was considered the GOAT prior to Klæbo has a PB of 14:27. He also did 8:18 in the 3000m, 30:31 in the 10000m, and 9:06 in the 3000m sc. Dæhlie did a 9:57 3000m at age 56.

Anders Aukland the king of langlopp/long races (the XC-skiing equivalent of moving up in distances (from 5k/10k to marathon) in later stages of your career) did 13:57 in his early 20s. He also did 14:50 a couple of weeks before turning 42. He also had career bests of 8:02 in the 3000m, 29:45 in the 10000m, and 8:50 in the 3000m sc. Aukland said in a podcast that he was capable of a 9:15-9:20 3000m at age 50 (He also measured a VO2 max of 72.9ml/kg/min at 50)

Harri Kirvesniemi (Finnish skier with 5(!) Olympic bronzes in the relay, as well as the oldest winner ever of a world cup event at 41 years and 10 months) has a 5k PB of 13:54 (if I remember correctly). He also did 8:10 in the 3000m.

I wouldn't look at the timed splits of cross country skiers as it is more variable than a cross country 5k to 5000m track conversion because of the wide array of conditions. Therefore, a lot is left to speculation.

The crossover in gait and locomotion between classic style xc skiing and running is apparent. Similar muscle groups are utilized albeit in a slightly different order. XC skiing is excellent for one's upper body and overall power for cross training, indeed.

I think the main reason there isnt more crossover of athletes is #1 it is expensive equipment, generally speaking, #2 you need to be close winter-capable locations and #3 close to supported venues be it a pay-per-use dedicated groomed venue or national/state trail system sponsored venue. Each venue is operationally unique.

The same can be said for continuous frestyle swimming.

Cross Country runners don't develop their upper body strength and endurance the same as Cross country skiers. All their strength and endurance is in their legs.

That is a bullsh!t reading...

Yes. Have done a little. Technique takes a lot of time. It is a great workout (arms have to be used as well). If you want to learn, I recommend somewhere in Vermont v Colorado (the altitude will create an additional hurt!).

Yes the first glaring indicator was his RER. I am convinced the lab folks in Norway never calibrate their carts.

Road sprint, not track sprint for the cycling.

The issue with runners and climbers is that runners often are not able to generate the power necessary. While climbers are pretty thin, they have more muscle mass than people realize.

Even with no training, probably at least 5:20 pace.

US Biathlete Jake Brown was a high level D3 runner at St. Olaf.

Felicia pasadyn claims she recently got a vo2 max of 86.5, and apparently some social media manager she referenced got over 88. Wonder how much interlab variation there is on some of these tests.

Was gonna say this -- KB just set some crazy high VO2 max, but his 5k is just under 14min on the roads during covid (I don't think he's done that on the track idk) so it's an important marker but not a be all end all.

Iivo Niskanen has run 4130 m (2022) and 4060 m (2025) in the Cooper test (12 min all-out) in a local sponsored event. Based on this, ~15-min 5 k is close.

At the Bislett Games, if I remember correctly, I once saw an 800m race in the preliminary program in which Björn Daehli and Thomas Alsgaard participated. Both were still active at the time. Daehli ran a low 2:xx, tumbled across the finish line in his typical fashion, and afterwards said that it had been very demanding and that you couldn't compare running and cross-country skiing. And that's the point. It's often underestimated how specific training changes the muscles. In recent years, during the Tour de France, it was speculated in online threads that the dominant winners, Pogacar or Armstrong, must be super runners. The same conclusion: They lack the running-specific fitness and the corresponding musculature, especially at the elite level.

As an amateur athlete, I trained cross-country skiing in my early teens, and later only mountain biking and running. I usually did running training instead of other training in the winter (because of the cold temperature and because I hate cycling on the indoor trainer), then switched to pure cycling in the spring and rode MTB marathons in the summer. Back then, I was always much better as a runner in the spring than in the autumn because I cycled from spring onwards, even though the training volume increased in the warmer months.