Sandnes gets very little snow to be sure. I am curious as to how are Henrik and Filip's ski results? I think that would be interesting. Regardless, I feel that it is impossible to translate ski speed to athletics however.
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How about this argument. He is incredible and more dominate at his sport than others in their respective endurance sports.
That being said, we won’t be able to judge how good he truly is based off of the weak competition he faces. Globally XC skiing has no where near the participation of running, cycling, probably Tri’s.
Ethiopia has more than 20x the population of Norway. I don’t care if skiing is popular in a handful of countries where no one lives. Japan has 20x the population of Norway. I could go on.
I have made the same case for triathlon, most of the world doesn’t do it!!! Alex Yee is an impressive cross over, Gwen Jorgensen is not.
It is ok that he is an all time great at a sport no one does. He could be an amazing runner but he isn’t, he wants to be the best skier ever.
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afgadsf wrote:
Of course, you do occasionally get an athlete like Ben True.
I've been following skiing since before 2000 and have observed the development of many top US skier from their junior years on. Ben True isn't the argument that you think it is. It can be turned around because True really had no chance to make the Olympics in skiing (yes, he tried) even with his running talent. You are valuing running talent more than skiing talent. High school skiers' running results in cross country and track are almost always dabbling, not-that-serious side efforts based on ski fitness. The skiers that do spring track come in off doing minimal running during ski season. The ones that make it in skiing could have taken huge chunks off their track times if they had focused on running instead of skiing.
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Awsi Dooger wrote:
There will be huge spotlight on Klaebo in that event if he wins all the preceding ones, as expected.
Hedegart is favored by many in the 10K. He's at least an equal favorite.
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Trondheim AC wrote:
Douchebagsanonymous wrote:
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.
Very well explained here. And I emphasize this statement:
”Ingebrigtsens started in Nordic skiing and defaulted to running because they were not good enough at it to be competitive in their own country.”
This will give a perspective to unknowing Americans of the level of athlete on skis in Norway.
Ingebrigtsen’s older brothers were already running at a high level before he even started his training. It’s ridiculous to think Gjert ever intended for Jakob to pursue XC skiing.
So far, there’s never been a crossover to running to anywhere the level of Alex Ye.
We all know about the crazy high VO2 maxes of XC skiers so most Americans know that they are impressive athletes.
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He's on way more than just his skis. LOL
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skime wrote:
Norway's Therese Johaug (female) who was an excellent xc skier (Old gold medalist) ran 31:32 for 10,000 on the track (and won the Norwegian national championships at 10,000 on the track).
Swiss 4x Olympic gold medalist Dario Cologna hobby jogged a 2:22:51 marathon in his retirement at age 38, training only 100km per week. He was/is going to go for sub-2:20 but was injured last I heard. For reference he retired from World Cup skiing after being washed up at the Olympics in 2022 at age 35. His prime athletic years where he won Olympic golds were from 2010 to 2018, when he was age 23 to 31, so he was 7 years past his prime in that hobby jogged marathon. He's not exactly a runner's build either at 5'10"/165lbs.
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Yeah 230 men in Japan run faster than 2:20 in 2025.
Still very impressive but nothing crazy.
are their even 230 high level skiers in the world?
It’s a fun debate but in my opinion the best/ most talented endurance athlete is Bekele. Champion of the track, WRs indoor and out, XC titles like crazy, and did great on the roads/ marathon.
Skiing is such a limited talent pool. I’d say this guy is the 3rd best endurance athlete in Norway. Jakob, that triathlete, then skier
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*Cologna at 5'10"/165lb was probably his fit skiing weight. He looks heavier on his instagram hobby jogging that 2:22:51.
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DevonDixonFan wrote:
His sport is not competitive. End of discussion.
That’s not the issue. The actual one is how fast a XC skier with a VO2 max of 90, would be if he transitioned to distance running. The reason XC skiers have such high VO2 maxes is because it’s a full body exercise so it’s questionable how useful it would be for a lower body sport such as running. It’s also likely to decrease after a transition. If building such a high VO2 max from XC skiing is beneficial, Gjert would have had his sons wait until age 18 before becoming distance runners.
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Dr. Rads wrote:
He is a bit big to be an elite 5k or 10k runner. I bet he could run high 29s right now, and probably get down to low 28s or high 27s with more specific training. I would love to see him do an Ironman. I bet he could compete in the pro field pretty quickly if he has any swimming ability.
I feel like he would be a decent 5k/10k guy if he lost all the muscle he needs for skiing.
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bigmig19 wrote:
"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?
The difference In physiological requirements between sprints and distance are different in skiing compared to running. It is significantly easier to be good or great in all skiing events compared to all running events.
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He would be a (if not the) top runner in the world. Considering how much extra mass he has to maintain for XC skiing, his aerobic system is easily the best in the world.
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ski23123 wrote:
He would be a (if not the) top runner in the world. Considering how much extra mass he has to maintain for XC skiing, his aerobic system is easily the best in the world.
Having a great aerobic system does not guarantee being a world class distance runner. Running efficiency and lactate threshold are also important. Can you tell just by looking at him, that he has the sub-50 400m speed needed to become the best runner in the world
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Yes, he's the top sprinter in the world for XC skiing and has massive leg muscles. He'd break 50 no problem and with some training prolly go down to like 47 high
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afgadsf wrote:
Rogaland wrote:
I don't think you understand. Every Norwegian child wants to become a skier. It is like Americans and their NBA or NFL. In fact, the Ingebrigtsens started their athletic career skiing.
One of the reasons that Norway hasn't had top tier athletics in the past years is that the best athletes go for skiing. Of course, Johannes is extremely strong and the best skier Norway has ever seen, but translating that to the track is impossible.Don't forget that in 2025 Klaebo won every single event at the world champs. From the sprint to the 50k! 6 golds!
I believe he's the only truly top-tier athlete in XC skiing right now. He's equivalent to Pogacar, Evenpoel, van der Poel, Hocker, Kiplimo, Jakob (when healthy), Blumenfelt and some more I'm missing. Those are all at the absolute top of what a conditioned human can achieve. Both in talent and race performance. Watching the sprint Klaebo made everyone else look silly. Just like Pogacar does when he feels like it, or van der Poel in cyclocross.
It's cool the US guy got second, but talent pool in XC skiing is so shallow you can take someone who would have been like a 9:20 guy in HS and get him a medal through years of work (no shade, that's the whole point of training).
We'll never know what Klaebo could have done had he picked track, but I think it's safe to say he'd be one of the top middle distance runners in the world.
I don´t think you can include van Evenepoel and Hocker. They are not winning enough. At least not Hocker.
Van Evenepoel HAS won many won many international golds but he is still "only" no 6 in the current world ranking.
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Douchebagsanonymous wrote:
DevonDixonFan wrote:
His sport is not competitive. End of discussion.
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.
I don´t think Jakob ever did any serious XC skiing. Henrik did when he was a teenager but Jakob no.
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Douchebagsanonymous wrote:
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.
On this website if you type a nonsensical essay that is "mostly" irrelevant to the discussion and just meatride people that suck (European runners), everyone loves you.
The reality is that XC skiing is not competitive "anywhere". It is legitimately one of the least competitive sports I can think of. What sports can you think of that are expensive to compete in, are boring, are painful, and only 1 country cares about it? It's embarrassing that you think you made a legitimate argument.
You're a Bozo, comparing East Africa (500 million ppl) to Norway (5.5 million) (Nairobi has a population of 5 million) is laughable.
Klaebo is not even remotely as talented as a elite Kenyan XC runner.
The Norwegian fanboys on this message board that know nothing about running (they started watching in 2019 and haven't touched a track in their life) shouldn't speak on this sport.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.214 -
Trondheim AC wrote:
Douchebagsanonymous wrote:
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.
Very well explained here. And I emphasize this statement:
”Ingebrigtsens started in Nordic skiing and defaulted to running because they were not good enough at it to be competitive in their own country.”
This will give a perspective to unknowing Americans of the level of athlete on skis in Norway.
What is the source on this? Is there something that says that they actually wanted to cross country ski?
Here is a source saying that Jakob was learning to cross country ski at 3 years old. Wow.
World Athletics wrote:
But to understand how he got here, you have to rewind more than a decade, back to an underground car park in Sandnes, Norway – the hometown of the Ingebrigtsens – where it’s 7:10am, dark and cold.
It’s the kind of time most would understandably be wrapped up in bed, but here was Jakob, strapped to a pair of cross country skis, learning his balance as older brothers Henrik and Filip completed lap after lap after lap around the perimeter.
“Three years old!” says his father Gjert. “Talented boy.”10 -
235243 wrote:
afgadsf wrote:
Of course, you do occasionally get an athlete like Ben True.
I've been following skiing since before 2000 and have observed the development of many top US skier from their junior years on. Ben True isn't the argument that you think it is. It can be turned around because True really had no chance to make the Olympics in skiing (yes, he tried) even with his running talent. You are valuing running talent more than skiing talent. High school skiers' running results in cross country and track are almost always dabbling, not-that-serious side efforts based on ski fitness. The skiers that do spring track come in off doing minimal running during ski season. The ones that make it in skiing could have taken huge chunks off their track times if they had focused on running instead of skiing.
I don't buy it. There are tons of HS track runners who don't run a step or play basketball or something over the winter and go on to run 4:20 in the mile. A talented HS XC skier should be able, off of a winter of intense ski training and racing, to run decent times in track. But most don't because the talent isn't there in the 500 (out of 6500 who participate in HS) or so skiers who actually take it seriously.
Ben could absolutely been a US olympian in XC skiing. Anyone know why he gave up trying, or didn't really try in the first place?
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