Johannes Klæbo, the human locomotive that has dynamited cross-country skiing

The first thing is the message.

An electrical current that crosses the brain.

And everything is unleashed.

The brain sends the signal: more wood for the locomotive.

The nervous system executes the order. More fibers and more fast fibers are put into motion. The muscles demand more energy. The heart rate goes up. The heart pumps more blood. With blood comes oxygen. And the quadriceps, the hamstrings, the calves become the coupling rod of the locomotive.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Up and down.

Johannes Klæbo only needed to steam his head.

Its engine already seemed to be running at full capacity when the storm hit. How wrong we were. It remained to be seen how he crushed the ground with his skis with the frequency of someone fleeing from the enemy but the rage of someone who crushes him. With the determination of someone who knows they are making history.

Click on the image to go to the original tweet (and see the devastating attack)

An overwhelming number

Three minutes and 40 seconds to cover a thousand meters.

Nothing too special. If we talk about putting on some sneakers and hitting the asphalt. Very different when you put on skis, face a slope and reach peaks of 18 km/h to destroy your rivals.

This is how Johannes Klæbo broke the sprint distance cross-country ski race.

3’39″74

Less than 220 seconds to cover a distance of 1,585 meters on skis. Where of course you go down, but where you also have to go up. Klæbo let himself go in the final meters, enjoying his overwhelming superiority as he did before. Usain Bolt in Beijing in 2008. How will you enjoy? Remco Evenepoel with the Eiffel Tower behind him in 2024.

Or as Tadej Pogacar repeats over and over again, the athlete with whom he is most compared for his domain.

Johannes Klæbo was born in Trondheim (Norway) in 1996. It will be 30 years in October. By then, it is certain, he will be able to display 15 gold medals accumulated in World Cups in his living room. On the other wall his nine Olympic medals will stand out, seven of them gold. Who knows if four more will accompany him as he did at the 2025 World Cup in Trondheim, his home.

Because after gold in the speed test and the 10+10 kilometer skiathlon, the Norwegian can become the Winter Olympian with the most gold medals in history.

At the moment, the reign is held by two other Norwegians. Marit Bjoergen, distance runner, is the person with the most Olympic medals in a winter games with eight golds, four silvers and three bronzes. He is followed by Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, biathlete, with another eight golds, four silvers and two bronzes. If he wins his six golds in these Olympic Games in Milano Cortina 2026, Klæbo would remain at 13 medals but the weight of 11 golds would elevate him to a new level. So far, it’s already been seven.

The Norwegian skier is one of those forces of nature that dominates any distance record and type of race within his sport. Like Pogacar, Armand Duplantis or Kilian Jornet, he is one of the chosen ones. One of those athletes who go down in history. Athletes who not only win, they crush any type of insurrection. And the most meritorious thing, they turn it into a spectacle.

Johannes Klæbo is also part of a generation of Norwegian athletes that are breaking with the established.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the result of a father who worked obsessively with his three children popularizing double threshold training. Karsten Warholm He was the first man to break the 46-second barrier in the 400-meter hurdles. Kristian Blummenfelt He is a triathlon world champion, Olympic champion and Ironman distance world champion. Johannes Thingnes Bø, biathlete, recently retired with five Olympic gold medals, two silver and two bronze. Magnus Carlsen is another of those geniuses whose roof, perhaps, only “El Mundo” can put it.

Photo | Olympics

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