After six golds from six: can anyone close the gap on Klæbo?

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo begins the 2026/27 season after what FIS called “a season for the ages”. The question for everyone else in the men’s field is not whether he can be beaten in a single race, which does happen, but whether anyone can stay close enough over a whole winter to make the Crystal Globes a contest.

What Klæbo did in 2025/26

These are the facts, all from FIS records:

• Six Olympic golds from six events at Milano Cortina 2026. That took him to 11 Olympic golds in total, making him the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time. Across Summer and Winter Games, only US swimmer Michael Phelps, with 23 golds, has more.
• 12 consecutive wins in international championship races, counting the 2025 World Championships in Trondheim, where he also won all six events.
• A clean sweep of the Crystal Globes: Overall, Sprint and Distance. It was the first time in his career that he took all three, and his first Distance Globe. His sixth Overall title equals the all-time record.
• A record fifth Tour de Ski title, which moved him clear of Dario Cologna’s four.
• His 100th World Cup win, in the Trondheim Sprint Classic in December.

The final 2025/26 men’s Overall standings showed Klæbo on 2,301 points, Harald Østberg Amundsen (NOR) on 1,848 and Federico Pellegrino (ITA) on 1,443. Pellegrino has since retired. Behind them were Mattis Stenshagen (NOR, 1,316) and Lars Heggen (NOR, 1,218). In the Sprint standings Klæbo finished on 835 points, 178 ahead of Heggen.

Klæbo was not unbeatable. In Davos he went out in a sprint quarter-final and finished 17th, the worst World Cup sprint result of his career. In Drammen a crash in a semi-final left him with a concussion, and he missed the Holmenkollen 50 km. Eight days later he won the 10 km Classic in Lake Placid. Looking back on the season, he told FIS: “It’s going to be hard to have a better season than this.”

What changed in his preparation

Before 2025/26, according to FIS, Klæbo changed how he trained and brought his friend Emil Iversen into his training group. At the Olympics he said: “We’ve had a lot of fun and this year has been much healthier than previous years. I feel less tired and I feel like my mental health is in a better place.”

That matters for 2026/27. The approach worked for one season, and he says it was easier on him physically and mentally, so there is no obvious reason to expect a drop-off.

Analysis: where the rest of the field stands

This section is analysis, not reporting.

The gap in the distance races is smaller than the headlines suggest. In the Distance standings, Amundsen finished on 1,141 points to Klæbo’s 1,166, only 25 points apart. Klæbo’s Overall margin came mostly from sprinting, where Amundsen was 12th. For a challenger, the realistic route to the Overall Globe is to match Klæbo in distance races and limit the losses in sprints. Klæbo’s route is to keep doing both.

Norway’s depth is the field’s real problem. Seven of the top ten in the 2025/26 Overall standings were Norwegian. In the Davos 10 km Free last season, Norway took seven of the top eight places. Anyone outside Norway has to beat not just Klæbo but a group of teammates who take points off each other and off everyone else.

Watch the non-Norwegians who finished high. American Gus Schumacher finished 7th overall and Italian Elia Barp 8th, and France’s Mathis Desloges took Olympic silver in the 10 km Free. Several nations are producing skiers who can win individual races, even if none has yet shown it can win over a full season.

The calendar plays to Klæbo’s strengths but leaves openings. There are sprints at nearly every stop, which suits the best sprinter of his era. But the Holmenkollen 50 km Classic, two Heat Mass Starts and a Tour that ends on the Cermis climb give stamina specialists real chances. Last season he finished 12th in the Tour’s first-ever Heat Mass Start in Toblach.

Motivation is the unknown we can’t measure. After winning everything, the question is whether Klæbo keeps targeting every race. FIS records show he raced the Falun World Cup a week after the Olympics, and won the sprint. We won’t speculate about his plans beyond what he has said publicly, and we will report any announcements as they come.

What we’ll be watching in Ruka

The 2026/27 season starts with two classic races in Ruka, the 10 km Interval Start and the Sprint, before a 20 km Free mass start. Last year, according to FIS, Klæbo won one of the three Ruka races and finished second in the 10 km Classic. The opening weekend will give a first, if early, read on whether 2025/26 was a peak or the new normal.