Comment: Johannes Klæbo is now the greatest skier ever — sharing a hotel with Yle is his last skier to beat

Comment: Johannes Klæbo is now the greatest skier ever — Yle shares a hotel with the man who last beat him

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won his eighth Olympic gold in his 13th Olympic start. The numbers are staggering, writes Yle Sports journalist Pekka Holopainen.

Yle’s cross‑country and ski jumping team are staying in the same hotel in Cavalesse where another familiar face also lives — the last competitor who managed to beat Klæbo in a championship race.

That memorable race took place in Planica on 5 March 2023. In the 50‑kilometre world championship mass start, Pål Golberg outsprinted Klæbo in the final kilometres and claimed the world title. Since that day Klæbo had not lost a championship race — until this Olympic period he extended his streak of consecutive major‑event victories to nine.

Golberg, now working as an expert for Norway’s NRK, remains the most recent athlete to have toppled Klæbo in a major championship. There is no obvious challenger on the horizon.

Since that March day Klæbo has started nine championship races and won them all. The latest big target fell on Friday when Klæbo won the 10‑kilometre (freestyle) individual time trial, his first Olympic victory in a time trial event. He had already achieved the same feat at world championship level last year on home tracks in Trondheim — an improbable victory that capped a remarkable season.

Starting earlier in the same race Klæbo congratulated Einar Hedegart, who took bronze in his first major championship start. Hedegart is likely to earn more success yet: he should again get a chance in the team sprint and will almost certainly be part of Norway’s relays.

If you compare Klæbo with the previous generation’s best, Petter Northug, one notable difference was that Northug never won an Olympic individual time‑trial gold (though he did on the world championship stage in Val di Fiemme 2013). With Friday’s win Klæbo matched Norway’s top Olympic scorers Marit Björgen and Bjørn Dæhlie — by the end of these Games he will stand as an 11‑time Olympic champion.

The most astonishing statistic: Klæbo’s eight Olympic golds have come in just 13 Olympic starts — a win rate of 61.53%. If he wins one more before the end of the Games that percentage would rise to 68.75%. At world championships his win rate is “only” about 54.2%.

New national head coach Joakim Abrahamsson, who will begin work in the spring, will no doubt study these results closely. The Finnish performances in time‑trial freestyle events give Abrahamsson — a Swede — some clear areas to target in upcoming training periods.

Pekka Holopainen

Published 13 February 2026

Related links

• Milano‑Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics coverage (Yle) • Yle: Ideas on how to stop Johannes Klæbo — watch the superstar’s reaction