Norway’s top cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo was once the world’s youngest male to win a FIS World Cup, a World Championship, and an Olympic medal in his sport. What his story and how he is aiming for gold at Beijing 2022. Music track: Black Magic, Jonasu
My name is Johannes Tøstvold Krabo.
I'm a cross-country skier from Norway, living in Trondheim.
I'm a gold medalist from the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.
I got my first cross-country skis from my grandfather,
which is now my best friend and my trainer as well.
For sure, it's been a lot of skiing in my family
and it was really natural that this was something that I loved as well.
I would say I have the best job in the world.
The environment, the chance to go out in nature
and just be around really, really good environments
is the best part of being a cross-country skier.
You are doing a lot of training.
You're training around 100 hours a month.
It's really nice to have the opportunity to see a different way
of how you should work with your body,
your mindset to become the best skier in the world.
After winning the first World Cup that season,
I saw that, OK, I will actually be able to fight for the podium at the Olympics.
So when I was coming to the Olympics and saw the tracks and everything,
I thought, OK, the last uphill before it finishes,
that is where I'm supposed to do my thing.
I had been so scared and nervous
and felt the pressure and expectation and everything.
I wanted to take that gold medal,
so crossing the finish line was a bit of a relief.
My grandfather, who was just standing on the finish line,
so going to give him a hug and just see that we made it,
it was such an amazing feeling and I will never forget that feeling.
And that is a feeling I work every single day to try to achieve again.
I know what to do,
but what was good enough four years ago isn't good enough now
if I should be able to succeed again.
I need to do some changes
and I need to have some changes in my training program
and how I mentally prepare myself for the races.
I had this vision of showing people as an athlete
what you're actually doing between the training sessions.
And I want to convey to young people that sports should be fun.
As a young athlete, you should be as varied as possible.
I think many parents have too many ambitions on behalf of their children.
Just go out, try different sports, try everything.
If there are some points of it you just love, just go for it.
Don't get too serious too early
and just have it really, really fun with your sport.
