From a television perspective, my only complaint about the Winter Olympics is that even with expert commentary, there aren’t enough distinct differences in the skills displayed in many events that I can tell them apart. It is impossible to distinguish between tricks performed by skiers and snowboarders and tricks performed by other athletes. You have to take Johnny Weir’s word for what an Axel is and what a Salchow is. Watching a ski jump is like looking at a painting. But when it comes to Johannes Kleibo, perhaps the best athlete at these events, it’s laughably obvious that no other cross-country skier can match him.

First, he’s there while his competitors are back there, but more relevant for our purposes, he can pick up the pace on skis in a way that no one else can. Watch this guy go.

Kleibo’s sudden burst of speed (at about the 2:35 mark in the video above) is perhaps the most shocking display of athleticism ever seen at these Olympics. difference between him and everyone else on the course. He splits his sub-6 minute mile running pace uphill, in the snow, on skis and deep into grueling races close to a mile long. Most people’s hamstrings are 15% less effective than his. His technique in Norwegian is ” Klibo Krivet.

By almost any standard, Klebo is the greatest male cross-country skier of all time. His 107 World Cup wins are the most in the history of the sport, and he is the youngest skier to win a World Cup, having already won 15 world championship gold medals at the age of 29. He went into the 2026 Olympics with five Olympic gold medals, three shy of the all-time record for a cross-country skier, and his second skiathlon gold at the Cortina Games. But Klebo’s ambitions go beyond simply breaking that record. He has said he wants to win six gold medals this year, which would make him the record for most gold medals by a Winter Olympian.

Kleibo is a sprinter and is completely dominant in the short distances of the sport. He spends his summers in Utah.Partly to buy time in the highlands and partly to escape his huge celebrity status in Norway. his competitor talk about himtheir tone is one of respectful awe, but why not? He is a machine that produces great television. Keep it up, Klebo.