Klaebo wins Lake Placid 20K to complete Crystal Globe sweep

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo capped an extraordinary year on Sunday by winning the 20km Freestyle Mass Start in Lake Placid, USA on the final day of the 2025/26 FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup season.

Starting on 27 February, 2025, the Norwegian won six out six gold medals at the Nordic Ski World Championships in front of hundreds of thousands of fans in his hometown of Trondheim.

Then, either side of again standing on the top of step of the podium six times at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games – becoming the most decorated Winter Olympian in history in the process – he swept all before him in the World Cup, becoming the first man to register 100 individual career wins on his way to claiming a clean sweep of Crystal Globes: Overall, Sprint and Distance.

It is an eighth sprint crown and record-equalling sixth overall title for the greatest cross-country skier of all time, but the distance title had thus far eluded him. With seemingly nothing left for the 29-year-old to achieve in the sport, Klaebo’s name now transcends it, drawing comparisons with swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian.

With the sprint title already secured and Klaebo suffering a concussion in Drammen, Norway on 12 March, he opted to skip Saturday’s Sprint Classic in Lake Placid, which not only paved the way for Federico Pellegrino (ITA) to secure victory at his last World Cup event, it also meant Klaebo – who won Friday’s 10km Interval Start Classic – was well rested for Sunday’s finale.

After Friday’s heavy snow and Saturday’s cloud, light rain greeted the competitors at the Mount Van Hoevenberg course on Sunday. Despite the best underfoot conditions of the weekend, an exciting track full of technically difficult turns still promised to test the world’s best over 5 x 4km laps.

Only Harald Oestberg Amundsen (NOR) could catch Klaebo at the top of the distance standings and the 2023/24 Overall champion made much of the running in an attempt to pull away from Klaebo and avoid a sprint finish between the two.

After finishing 15^th behind winner Amundsen in the 20km Mass Start Free in Ruka, Finland during the first World Cup event of the season, before storming off angrily, Klaebo was never likely to allow his compatriot to break free this time. The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) was always in touch, putting in bursts at 9km and 17km to take maximum bonus points (15) at those checkpoints and extend his lead in the standings.

More and more of the leading group fell away with each lap until just six were in contention going into the final loop – Klaebo and Amundsen along with teammates Mattis Stenshagen, Einar Hedegart and Andreas Fjorden Ree, as well as Davide Graz (ITA).

Klaebo made a trademark burst up the last of the short climbs before the long downhill into the stadium section, but Amundsen somehow managed to stay with him and moved wide going into the final straight, but he just didn’t have the energy or the speed to move past his countryman, finishing 0.8 seconds behind.

A late surge from Hedegart took him onto the podium ahead of Stenshagen, while Ree’s fifth-place finish was enough to move him up to third in the distance standings, just eight points ahead of Martin Loewstroem Nyenget (NOR), who could only manage ninth place in the 20km.

Lars Heggen (NOR) was the runaway winner of the green bib as the best under-23 skier, finishing fourth in the overall standings after a sensational debut season, despite missing out on Olympic selection.

But the day and the season again belonged to – who else? – that man Klaebo.

For the full results from Lake Placid, click here

For the final World Cup standings, click here