PARK CITY, UTAH — In Norway, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo has achieved NBA superstar-type fame.
The cross country skier is a heavy favorite to win up to six gold medals at the upcoming Olympic Games in Italy next year — putting him on track to become one of the most decorated winter Olympians of all time.
At home, tabloids track Klæbo's movements, and he has endorsement deals with gas stations, running shoes and a line of products that help style his famously flowing blond hair.
In America? It's another story.
While in Norway, cross-country skiing is the national sport, it barely registers with most Americans — meaning that the 29-year-old can walk openly down the street here without attracting attention.
That's one reason why, for each of the past four autumns, Klæbo has turned Utah into a sort of second home — a high-altitude refuge for relaxing, productive training camps.
"What I like here is that it's so quiet," Klæbo said in an interview with NPR. "It's so easy. You can go into stores."
Klæbo's relative anonymity in Utah underscores how many Winter Olympic sports keep a relatively low profile in the U.S. — even as skiing and biathlon can regularly draw huge crowds at European venues.
Six World Championship gold medals - nobody does that
At last season's World Championships in his home city of Trondheim, tens of thousands of fans cheered alongside the trails as Klæbo won gold in all six events, from a three-minute sprint to a 30-mile marathon.
In America, the sport is growing in popularity, and an international-caliber World Cup race in Minnesota two years ago drew a big crowd. But generally, few U.S. competitors earn a decent living from cross-country skiing, let alone draw the major sponsorships like Klæbo has signed.
While Klæbo has easy access to venues and resorts across Europe, the training grounds available in Utah were intriguing enough to prompt him to travel there in 2022, after the last Winter Olympics in China.
He said he was pleased to discover a mix of both mountainous terrain, for hard workouts, and more gentle roads and trails for easier sessions — as well as American drivers who he describes as surprisingly courteous.
In the Italian Alps, Klæbo said, cars pass at a "crazy speed," and police have even stopped some athletes as they were training on wheeled devices called rollerskis.
Park City, meanwhile, has dedicated bike lanes and drivers who shout encouragement out their windows rather than making rude gestures, said Emil Iversen, another Norwegian and longtime friend of Klæbo who joined the Utah training camp this fall.
"This was, like, totally the opposite," Iversen said. "We feel welcome."
Utah - friendly, but still risky
Utah wasn't always a sure bet for Klæbo, though.
When he planned his first visit, Norwegian team staff reached out for advice to Luke Bodensteiner, a retired American Olympian who now runs a cross-country skiing venue in Utah.
Bodensteiner said the Norwegians made it clear they weren't happy about their national sporting treasure taking off for a few weeks in America.
"Skiing doctrine would say, 'Don't fly across the pond. Fly over the Atlantic as few times as you possibly can, ever.' Jet lag, getting sick on the plane [are risks]," Bodensteiner said. "Despite that, he was bold and said, 'Hey, I've heard it's great training over there, and I want to experience it and see if it's everything that it's cracked up to be.' And he's been back for four years now."
Klæbo's trips to the U.S. are no small endeavor, involving a rented house, a bicycle and plenty of other gear lugged over from Norway — not to mention sharing a living space with his father, who doubles as a manager, as well as Iversen and both of their fiancées.
But one of his strengths as an athlete is challenging conventional wisdom, according to Megan Stowe, a Utah-based physical therapist who's been working with the Norwegian for the past few years.
He's also really into acupuncture, and recently tested out an artificial intelligence-informed strength-training regime, according to Stowe, who used to work with NBA players and sometimes treats Klæbo in Europe.
"Johannes is open to anything that helps him perform and helps him recover," she said. "He's never said, 'No, I'm not going to try that.'"
It would be safer for Klæbo to train in the Alps, he said, noting that it's closer to home if something goes wrong. But, he added, "I like taking risks, and I like to do things my own way."
Following an intense period of training in advance of last season's World Championships in his home town, Klæbo's vibe in Utah this year is notably lower-key.
After four years, Klæbo knows the twists and turns of Park City's roads and where to find the Patagonia outlet downtown. But even for a man who could retire as the greatest ever in the history of his sport, he said the $1.8 million median home price here may be too high for him to settle permanently.
"I think I picked the wrong sport in terms of economics," he said. "If I should buy a house up here, I think I should have started doing soccer."
Klæbo's has committed to racing the next two Olympics. By the 2034 games, he could be past retirement age.
But those Olympics just happen to be in Utah — and, Klæbo said, it's going to be hard to say no.
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