Johannes Klæbo suffers a rare sprint flop in Davos — Aino‑Kaisa Saarinen questions his approach

Norway’s sprint dominator Johannes Høsflot Klæbo suffered a highly unusual early exit in Saturday’s freestyle sprint in Davos, bowing out in the quarterfinals. In his opening heat he finished fourth and did not advance on time to the semifinals. On the Davos course he struggled notably, nearly losing his balance in the first corner. It was the first time since 2016 that the multi‑event star failed to reach at least the semifinals of a World Cup sprint.

Yle expert Aino‑Kaisa Saarinen was astonished by Klæbo’s difficulties. She also pointed to a generally weak day for Norway’s men in the sprint, which she believes could reflect the team’s heavy early‑season emphasis potentially catching up with them. Norway is engaged in fierce internal competition for eight men’s Olympic spots for Milan–Cortina 2026, meaning potential gold contenders could even miss selection.

Just a week earlier in Trondheim, Norway’s men looked untouchable; in the skiathlon the first eight finishers were all Norwegian. In Davos, however, only one Norwegian reached the men’s final. “It was a really strange softening from them,” Saarinen said. “Has the strong early‑season push backfired? There was clearly a dip this weekend.”

Klæbo’s own Olympic place is all but assured, so he may not have needed to peak in the first races. Although he remains formidable—last winter he famously won all six races at the World Championships in Trondheim—he has not yet shown his absolute best this season. In Ruka he lacked the finishing power in the freestyle mass start spiced up by Sweden’s Edvin Anger and Austria’s Mika Vermeulen. In Trondheim’s 10 km freestyle interval start he was only the seventh‑best Norwegian, 21 seconds off the win, though he did win the sprint and the skiathlon there.

Saarinen emphasized that Klæbo’s finishing kick still looks strong, but highlighted repeated balance issues even on his second lap of the quarterfinal. She questioned why, having said after Friday’s team sprint with Erik Valnes that they wanted to stay at the front to avoid crashes, Klæbo then chose to linger at the back in Saturday’s individual sprint. “His words and actions don’t match. There are question marks in the air. Something odd is going on—maybe Klæbo is a normal mortal after all,” she said, looking ahead to Sunday’s 10 km freestyle interval start.

Results in Davos underscored the shift: France’s Lucas Chanavat won the men’s sprint ahead of Italy’s veteran Federico Pellegrino and Norway’s Oskar Opstad Vike. In the women’s final, Sweden’s Jonna Sundling prevailed over Mathilde Myhrvold (NOR) and Nadine Fähndrich (SUI).