Johannes Hoesflot KLAEBO

HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT
In 2017, at age 20, became the youngest cross-country skier from any nation to become World Cup overall sprint champion, beating the previous record of Norway's Marit Bjoergen who was 22 when she won the overall sprint title in 2003. (Info 2018)

FAMILY TEAM
From a young age, he has trained under the tutelage of his grandfather, Kare, who has been an incredible supporter of his and has trained with him since he was a kid. Their unique relationship moved author Knut Georg Andresen to write a book about it entitled 'Johannes and Grandpa'. But the 2020/21 season would be missing the elder Hosflot, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. His father is his manager and his mother takes care of the finances. (nrk.no, Mar 2017; olympics.com, 15 Nov 2020)

COVID-19
Due to the ongoing pandemic, his withdrawal from World Cup competitions in Davos and Dresden in late 2020 sent a dramatic signal, forcing top skiing officials to re-evaluate the risks involved for all top athletes who are expected to keep flying internationally for the sake of the sport. He was deeply shaken by some incidents at the World Cup season opener in Finland where an athlete was found to have tested positive for the Coronavirus after he’d been allowed to move freely around the stadium area. “I’ve been feeling this for a while. It started in connection with the World Cup final last season...I feel that skiing and competitions are not very important in relation to the pandemic that is now raging all over the world. Everyone has to do their part – and what they think is right. This is important and the right thing to do for me.” (newsinenglish.no, 30 Nov 2020; fasterskier.com, 30 Nov 2020)

VLOG
CNN once called Klaebo “Norway’s Justin Bieber”. He runs a vlog, where you see every aspect of his daily life as a ski hero, which is filmed and edited by his younger brother Ola (who produces music under the artist name OKEY and has performed in front of 20,000 people at the Bislett Stadion in Oslo, the venue for the opening ceremony of the 1952 Olympic Winter Games). (olympics.com, 15 Nov 2020)

© Data by Sports Data Warehouse

OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES
Olympic champion in sprint (free) at Beijing 2022.

Became the youngest male Olympic cross-country skiing champion in the history of the Olympic Winter Games at the age of 21 years and 114 days when he won the sprint at PyeongChang 2018, which he led from its start to its finish.

Hero of the 2017/18 Olympic season winning three gold medals at PyeongChang 2018 to tie with French biathlete Martin Fourcade for the most gold medals won at the Games.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
In his seven World Championship career races, he has won a medal in everyone -- six golds and one bronze. In 2021, he successfully defended every race he won in 2019 (sprint, team sprint, relay). Debuted at Lahti 2017 winning bronze in the sprint. Was disqualified from the 50km race at Oberstdorf 2021 for obstructing Russia’s Alexander Bolshunnov in what he describes as the best race of his career. (fasterskier.com,10 Mar 2021)

By winning the 2019 sprint, he became the youngest male winner of a World Championship race in cross-country skiing.

Career breakout came on the junior circuit at the 2016 Junior World Championships, where he won three gold medals, two coming in individual events.

WORLD CUP
Became the youngest sprint World Cup winner of all time in 2017, and the youngest overall World Cup winner in 2018, a feat which he repeated in 2019.

Won the sprint World Cup ranking four times back-to-back (2017-20) to become the most successful male sprinter in World Cup history, while he won his 24th individual sprint race to overtake Emil Jonsson's all-time World Cup records.

Won the Tour de Ski in January 2019, becoming the youngest winner of the stage series.

Was on the World Cup podium for the first time in November 2016 in Ruka (third in the sprint), and won his first World Cup title in February 2017 in Otepaa.