MILAN — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo arrived in the Dolomites under a mountain of pressure.
A Norwegian star of cross-country skiing, Klaebo had earned the nickname “King” for a reason. He already owned five Olympic gold medals, three shy of tying the all-time record. He is also the reigning world champion in all six of cross country’s events.
And in Tesero, the mountain town hosting cross-country skiing during this month’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, he was attempting to pull off an unprecedented feat — winning six gold medals at a single Winter Olympics.
To take his mind off all of those expectations and introduce a routine he can follow during his more than 250 days on the road every year while competing, Klaebo turns to video games, including the first-person shooting game “Battlefield.”
“A great way to switch your mind off,” he said.
The 29-year-old travels with a screen and console safely packed in his luggage. It helps him regulate between the extreme focus and exertion needed to win, and the relaxation he needs to recover.
“I need the nerves to be able to perform at my highest level, and in the evenings, I just try to play a little bit (online) with my friends back home and talk about different things than skiing,” Klaebo said. “And I feel like that helps.”
But they weren’t helping during his first days in Tesero, because he could barely get his Playstation working. The only thing that can rattle the sport’s most dominant star, it seems, is bad Wi-Fi.
“The conclusion was that the internet was a bit too weak,” Klaebo said last week. “Now we have put Italy to work here and we will see if someone comes and fixes it.
“In the worst case someone turns up and cables up my internet. Then the Olympics are saved. I depend on it completely so I am willing to pay a lot to get it sorted.”
As an endurance sport, cross-country skiing conditions its competitors to punishment in grueling conditions. But the prospect of going without a staple of his decompression routine was a step too far. Klaebo isn’t the only competitor at the Olympics who uses them for such a purpose. Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, who competes for Norway in biathlon, told Reuters that he played against some of his French competitors in “Battlefield” while at the Olympics.
“I’m taking lives in the virtual world,” he said. “Since I’m not that good I don’t take that many lives, but I’m trying. In my first room, the internet was bad so I took Arild (Monsen, a former cross-country skier)’s room and it was a little better.
“If you’re worrying about me staying up late at night, you don’t have to. Yesterday I was up until (9:15), although that was due to the poor internet too. I’m getting my hours in bed.”
As expected, nothing has stopped Klaebo so far as he won a gold medal Sunday in the skiathlon and again in Tuesday’s sprint classic final, when he sprinted uphill, on skis, at faster than six-minute-mile pace.
With one more win, he will tie the record for all-time Winter Olympics gold medals held by three other Norwegians — two cross-country skiers and a biathlete.
His reward for earning career gold No. 7 Sunday?
“I guess I will celebrate with some evening games,” he said.
