Petter Northug (NOR) looks back at his career – and reveals who will be the next cross-country superstar: 'He is really a diamond'

It has almost been a decade since Petter Northug Jr won four gold medals at the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Sweden – the last of his total of 20 medals across the Olympic Games and world championships.

But the Norwegian Cross-Country icon is still competing, in long distance races such as the Ski Classics Pro Tour.

"I have found a good balance in both training and work. I still think it's great fun to have a starting number on the chest, Northug said.

"Unfortunately I have struggled a bit from October until now. But now things are starting to flow a bit again, so I think it's still a lot of fun to compete."

A comeback to FIS Cross-Country World Cup racing is however not on the cards according to the 37-year-old.

"That time has probably gone, but I think long-distance skiing is really fun. I train a lot of poling, and mainly long runs, so it is a different type of training," Northug said.

"It is an exciting challenge when you have been in the World Cup circuit for a long time, to try long-distance racing."

Northug, from the village of Framverran north of Trondheim, has a successful cross-country career to look back at. Apart from the two Olympic titles and 13 world championships gold medals, he won 32 World Cup races to claim three crystal globes – two overall titles and one distance win.

"What I miss the most, I guess, is the way I lived in a bubble, where everything was aimed towards one thing and that was to perform and win ski races," he said.

"Everyone around you and working with you arranged every day for you to have the best opportunity every day to go fast skiing. It's a special situation to be in, but when you look back at it, you miss it a little.

"I was a competitive person, and when I felt that the whole team around me was all working in the same direction, it was very motivating. It is a lifestyle that I was very fond of."

Working as a Nordic skiing pundit for Norwegian TV, he still keeps bumping into people who remind him of his career.

"I was in that circus here for many, many years and got to experience that much, so for me it's a great time to look back on and have so many great memories," he said.

"When you meet people who were with me on that journey, we still sit and reminisce about those days, that life, the training and competitions, so it's really nice."

His main competitor was Switzerland's Dario Cologna, a four-time Olympic gold medallist who won the 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015 overall crystal globe as well as four distance crystal globes and four Tour de Ski titles. But Northug also enjoyed his fights with the Swedes, Germans and Russians.

"It was fun with those intrigues and battles. When I came in and sat watching the 30km mass start in Canmore (Canada) in the 2005-2006 season, there were three Germans in the top-five, and I thought that this is something to train for," he said.

"In the mass starts, the Germans were very good, (Tobias) Angerer was very tactically strong, so that was what I was going for, to beat Germany. We got a lot of nice fights there, then Dario from Switzerland came up, then Marcus Hellner and Emil Joensson from Sweden, so there were many nations, and it was very exciting.

"I think it was the personalities from many different countries that made the World Cup really exciting at the time."

Always outspoken in interviews, Northug became a skier who stood out, not just for his victories.

"There are many who remember it, many who say that they miss that time, and that they think that the cross-country skiing was more alive then, with the fights we had," Northug said.

"It was really exciting before, and there were a lot of tough battles, both through the media and in the track, and a lot of tough competition which made it very interesting. And many had an opinion about it, which made it exciting."

For Northug, the battles against certain opponents worked as fuel to make him stronger.

"I am a competitive person. I always try to be myself, and I was very motivated by these fights, both with Sweden, Russia, Dario and Germany, and then Lukas Bauer came up from the Czech Republic, so that was very motivating," he said.

"It was tough competition, from several nations, and that added a lot of focus to the spring, summer and autumn seasons and so on, when you had to train and prepare to compete with them in the winter."

He does not think that there is any Petter Northug on the tour today.

"There is probably no Petter Northug and that might as well be fine. After so many years it could be healthy with a Petter Northug break," he said.

There is, however, another Norwegian dominant force in the World Cup tour; Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo.

"Even though we are different, he is, in a way, someone who has taken over the role that I had, who has been the anchor for Norway, who has finishing qualities, and who has shown an art when it comes to balance on skis, and who have taken the sprint two steps further," said Northug, whose younger brother Even, 28, is a regular World Cup feature.

"So it is very gratifying to see that there is still development. Then we would like to have more nations on the men's side."

In a few years, Northug hopes that the rivalry between Sweden and Norway picks up again on the men's side as he hails a Swedish 17-year-old as a future cross-country star.

"Alvar Myhlback is a skier who is very exciting looking into the future. He is an all-round skier who can win both sprint and distance races," Northug said.

"Alvar is still young and he is still focusing on the junior world cup, but he has tried it out at the World Cup in Oestersund (Sweden). He is a competitive person who got disappointed when he didn't proceed from the qualifications there.

"It really is a diamond that Sweden has got, which I hope can somehow come and challenge Klaebo at the end of his career, when he is in his 30s. I think that could be a great Norway versus Sweden battle again. It would be interesting to see.

"Alvar is still young, of course, but everything is in place for him to become an all-rounder at Klaebo's level in the future. So I think the whole skiing world has probably been watching Alvar extra closely to see what he has done in the long-distance races but also at the World Cup over the past years."

On the women's side, skiers from more nations are fighting for victories this season, Northug said.

"There are more nations at the top, and it is very pleasing that there are new winners, and that you in Trondheim got a German winner (Victoria Carl) in the women's World Cup, so that is very positive and important.

Northug mentions USA's Jessie Diggins and Sweden's Ebba Andersson as main contestants for the crystal globe.

"Ebba is in good shape again, so it's exciting, and Diggins looks awfully strong this year, she seems complete. In Kuusamo (Ruka), at 10km classic, I noticed she'd been working on her technique," Northug said.

"She looked a lot more relaxed and took her time bit more, it wasn't just stress and speed. She is in good shape and will be hard to beat in Tour de Ski.

"It would be cool to have an American winner in the World Cup with Jessie Diggins, absolutely. She got a world championships title last year, which was huge for her. I think she likes to be in a very good place, and looks like she is very strong, and that is nice."

In the sprints, the Swedish women have the upper hand for the coming years, according to Northug.

"You can see the advantage of having a strong team like Sweden has on the women's side now. It paves the way for more people to break through as well. You see Moa Ilar, she has taken two steps forward this year and become incredibly strong," he said.

"They are at such a good age where the entire Swedish team have many years ahead of them. They have an Olympics in Cortina (Italy, 2026) after the world championships in Trondheim (Norway, 2025). They have a world championships in Falun on home soil in 2027, so right now it looks awfully bright when it comes to Swedish gold medals on the women's side in championships in years to come."

The main challenger to Swedish sprint dominance is Kristine Stavaas Skistad from Norway.

"She did not get any world championships gold medal last winter, but she won the test world championships and I think what is important to her now is winning this sprint at the Trondheim world championships," Northug said.

"But Sweden have so many who can beat Kristine on her home track. Linn Svahn seems to be back, Emma Ribom is strong and it is also a perfect track for Jonna Sundling. So it will be tough for Kristine, but I am looking forward to that battle. I hope that it will be that kind of dream final including the four of them next year."

As Tour de Ski starts in Toblach, Italy, on 30 December, Northug is still the record holder for most stage wins in the competition, with 13 triumphs. The 2015 winner said the key to success is the mental preparation.

"Tour de Ski is tough. I have done many Tour de Skis and what I have noticed from that is that the toughest is that it is mentally terribly hard," Northug said.

"For a sprinter, if you go to the final in every sprint, it will be long days and that's hard to prepare for mentally. In addition, you'll have to travel and move, you have to get changed every day, you have to eat right and recover after each race.

"You get some days that are tougher than others. And then it is important to enter the tour with an excess energy, be prepared for this to be tough and for there to be some days that can be brutal."

It's all about building up that extra energy coming into the competition, according to Northug.

"The preparations and training you do over Christmas have to be correct, but also that you come in with excess energy – that is priority No.1," he said.

"The tour will get tough, and then it is also important after Tour de Ski that you dare to rest and recover sufficiently before starting new training towards the World Cup."

The cross-country icon said the annual competition that ends with a climb up the Alpine ski slope at Alpe Cremis is perhaps not what he misses the most from his time in the World Cup.

"Tour de Ski was always brutal for me. There were many who wanted to beat me, and I often knew that I had to get to the final in the sprint, in order to get enough bonus seconds to be at the top for the pursuit going up the hill," he said.

"I have many good memories from Tour de Ski but I also always remember how incredibly exhausted I was at the top of Alpe Cermis every year. It was tough just to recover and to get that excess energy back after the Tour de Ski, so I prioritised a lot of resting after that."