I’m a layman here, but for a starter I would ask three Norwegians about their experiences:
1. Ingrid Kristiansen. -In 1978 she placed 21 in the cross country ski WC, (+ took silver in the Nationals) and the same year she did a 9.04 3000m track time. She then kept on doing some ski training winter time, but stopped competing because of prioritising track. Result: She held the WRs in the 5/10000m and HM and marathon simultaneously, and also won the Worlds athletics xc gold and 10000m at worlds. So my question to her would be if she lost so much (if any) shape skiing wise that she couldn’t have been an olympic skier. (We know she must have done some fast ski intervals / long skiing as part of her winter training also after the transition, and thus had something to compare with her former ski shape), And where she thinks the balance is -how much slower she would have to run in the 5000m track to be good enough for the olympic skier team.
2. I would likewise ask Henrik Ingebrigtsen about the balance. -He won the junior National champs in cross skiing at 18 years old, also doing a lot of running, then skipped the competitions, and three years later he placed 5th in the OG 1500m, closing like a freight train, only a couple of tens from medalling. My question to him would be how much percentage specific ski training he thinks he could have done without f.x losing less than 10 sec to his 5000m PR.
3. Henrik little brother, Jakob, was a relatively poor skier (placed 3 and 4 in the regionals at eleven years old -out of 19- despite doing a National best 17.19 roads that year). Question: Do you think you could have gotten a good enough technique to become an olympic skier. And what do you think your track 5000m would have been with ski training (barely) enough to make the ski team?
To your question about Jakob’s VO2 max: When Jakob was eleven his VO2 max was 68. (Wikipedia). -We know he has measured it later as well, but he has kept the number to himself.
