Harald Østberg Amundsen reveals his plans for the winter and how he will challenge Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.

For Harald Østberg Amundsen, a ‘championship-free season’ only means that every race weekend is a highlight and part of the plan to lay the base for the World Championships on home soil in 2025. He also wants to take the overall victory in the Tour de Ski from Klæbo. 

In other words, for the 24-year-old from Asker, Norway, the coming winter will be a continuous running festival with new highlights every weekend from November to April. But one of the highlights hangs exceptionally high this winter: Tour de Ski. 

Langrenn.com chatted with the Norwegian national team’s skier on the way to the first training camp of the season at Sognefjellet. Østberg Amundsen will be there until June 6. After that, he travels back to Oslo to participate in the national team’s first meeting. It starts in Oslo on June 8 and continues with traditional base training in Fredrikstad after the Holmenkollen Ski Show on June 10.

How do you set up a championship-free season, and how do you take advantage of the fact that there are no World Championships or Olympic Games?  

“For me, all ski races are really equally important. And this winter, there are many highlights that come close throughout the season. There is both the World Cup in Granåsen and the Tour de Ski and then there is a period of World Cup races in the USA and Canada in the winter which I think will be extremely cool. So I’m looking forward to the season.” 

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Competition marathon from November to January

As the overall winner of the Scandinavian Cup this winter, Østberg Amundsen now has a free place for all races from the season-opening in Ruka on the last weekend in November and the entire first period of the World Cup. He grabs that opportunity with both hands.

But for Østberg Amundsen, the racing season starts several weeks before that. He aims to make his season debut at the National Finnish Premiere in Muonio in the first half of November. Then comes the Norwegian season opener at Beitostølen the week before the World Cup start. 

The World Cup traditionally begins with a three-day competition weekend in Ruka in Finland on the last weekend in November. Then follow two World Cup rounds in Sweden, before the World Cup in Granåsen and Trondheim on the last weekend before Christmas. 

Tour ambitions 

The ambition is to use the first four World Cup rounds to qualify for the Tour de Ski squad. 

The Tour debut with ninth place overall added flavor, and with the winter’s ups and downs in both classic and sprint, Østberg Amundsen believes that he has a real chance of taking the overall victory from Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.

“Tour de Ski is very important in my mind. It’s a concept that I think is extremely cool, and the program set up this year suits my qualities very well. The first time I did the Tour de Ski, I came ninth overall, but that was two years ago, and I have developed a lot since then,” says Østberg Amundsen, and continues: 

“If you want to be a contender in the Tour de Ski, you must master everything from sprints to distance and all race formats. Now I also succeeded quite well with a good number of sprinters in the World Cup this winter, and I performed much better in classics as well. It will be important if you can catch up with Klæbo and (Pål Golberg), but I think that I might be someone who can do it, and that really triggers me.” 

“If I succeed in getting to go all these races in the first period and also the Tour de Ski, then I will probably have to put in a proper rest and training period in January. Because in February, the World Cups are coming in Canada and the USA, and the last period with the classic World Cup weekends in Holmenkollen, Lahti, and Falun will be great fun,” says Østberg Amundsen.

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Despite Amundsen getting Covid ahead of the season opener, he was not able to properly start competitions until well after the New Year and therefore had to qualify for the World Championships team in the most difficult way: From victory and podium in the Scandinavian Cup in Falun in mid-January via a Norwegian Championships gold in the 15km race the following weekend, to the first World Cup win of his career, World Championships silver in Planica, overall victory in the Scandinavian Cup and National Championships silver in March. 

Read More: Harald Østberg Amundsen wins the 10km race at the World Cup in Les Rousses

Østberg Amundsen ended the World Cup season in the same style. In Falun, the Norwegian skier took his first World Cup podium in classic, which is the style he has so far struggled more. And during the World Cup final in Lahti, he made it to the final in a World Cup sprint for the first time. That sprint also was contested in classic style, the day after Østberg Amundsen finished third place in the team sprint together with Sindre Bjørnestad Skar. 

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From sprint to marathon, classic, and freestyle: After the merits of the winter, Østberg Amundsen has proven that there are no longer any distances or race formats he cannot master. 

When Østberg Amundsen was named to the Norwegian elite team two years ago, it was precisely these ‘characteristics,’ the potential to be able to deliver at all distances and styles, that head coach Eirik Myhr Nossum particularly valued in the then 22-year-old skier.  

Now Østberg Amundsen will use the next six months to make him even more attractive in that context. 

“I did some good sprints in the World Cup last winter, so I must continue to work on that,” he says and explains that he has made a plan for that: 

“I’m going to put in some specific sprint sessions and also do some sprint roller ski races so that I can train on cross-country and tactical things along with explosiveness and speed.” 

At the same time, Harald Østberg Amundsen emphasizes that it does not eliminate the usual cross-country training. 

“Sprint will be a focus in the run-up this season, but it will mostly be a little later in the autumn.”