Musgrave trains in Trondheim with Olympic medals on his mind: 'I'd big up Cross-Country in Britain'

When Great Britain's Andrew Musgrave came into Trondheim's Granaasen stadium in the final lap of the Men's 20km Skiathlon Classic/Free, it was a moment the 35-year-old had been dreaming of for a long time.

Musgrave, from Huntly in Scottish Aberdeenshire, has spent more than a decade in the Norwegian Cross-Country melting pot to improve his skiing, training alongside Trondheim locals such as five-time overall World Cup winner Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR).

"I've lived in Trondheim for 12 years now and this is massive for me," said the distance expert, whose apartment is only a couple of kilometers from the iconic ski center.

In front of more than 45,000 loud Cross-Country fans in the first distance event of the 2025 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships, Musgrave had placed himself at the front of the pack, ahead of Klaebo and other superstars such as defending overall World Cup winner Harald Oestberg Amundsen (NOR) and 2017 Sprint World champion Federico Pellegrino (ITA).

He kept his lead far into the last kilometer but in the final climb, Klaebo went past him and the battle for the gold medal was over. Musgrave had to settle for a seventh place as Klaebo, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, Amundsen and Jan Thomas Jenssen made it an all-Norwegian top-four.

"I felt like I was strong today but at the same time it was kind of a standard procedure for me; a group with some fast people in it, I tried to go hard on the last lap but it just ends up with me pulling everybody into the sprint and then me being old and slow and everyone going past before the finish," Musgrave said.

He had struggled in the first 10km Classic and spent a lot of energy recovering from that. It had only been in the last lap, boosted by the loud crowd, that he had been able to go fast again.

"The atmosphere is absolutely wild and to be honest, I was feeling good with 3k to go. So when I went to the front, I was like 'OK, Johannes is looking super strong, he's going to be difficult to beat', but I still thought I could get a medal," Musgrave said.

Despite an endless amount of training hours at Granaasen over the past few years leading up to the World Championships, it was still a hard task for Musgrave to prepare himself for the loud noise at the stadium.

"The atmosphere was absolutely unbelievable. Where the wax cabins are, where we were by the start and everything, is closed off, so there are no crowds around there. So you don't notice how many people there are," he said.

Musgrave had picked up Cross-Country skiing in Alaska, USA, where his family lived for six years when he was a child because of his father's job. After moving back to Britain, he would not stop skiing and the move to Norway meant he could live and train where skiing is a part of life. Therefore, the move to start at a ski school in Norway in 2009 did not pose too many culture clashes for Musgrave, who said he is going back to Britain "a couple of times per year".

"I don't think (life) has changed that much, to be honest. I've always been kind of a Cross-Country skiing nerd and I still am. It's the same old, just training and trying to get good," he said, adding that one thing might have change in his everyday life habits after all.

"I've started to drink more (traditional Scandinavian spirit) aquavit and less whiskey since I got here," Musgrave joked.

Watching the people partying along the tracks of Trondheim, Musgrave agreed that the Nordic Ski World Championships had turned into a celebration of sport in a way that British people usually liked it. Some Union Jack flags were waving around Granaasen, but the veteran little brother of Rosamund "Posy" Musgrave (GBR), who competed in the World Cup between 2010 and 2015, hopes that his skiing can help growing the sport in his home country.

"There are some British flags around and a few British people here. I've got my family out so there are definitely a few people here cheering," Musgrave said.

His best result in Trondheim came in the last day of Men's competitions at the World Championships, finishing sixth in the 50km Mass Start Free where he was the only non-Nordic athlete in the top-eight. To grab the attention of a wider British audience, however, Musgrave hopes for a podium at next year's big event; the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

"The biggest thing for Britain is the Olympics. Every four years, the Olympics come around and then we get a bit of attention," said the Brit, who made his Olympic Games debut at Vancouver 2010.

Vancouver 2010 became a reality check for Musgrave, who failed to make it into the best 50. Since then, he has competed at another three Games, with a Skiathlon seventh-place at PyeongChang (KOR) 2018 as his best result. And Musgrave, who finished 22nd in the overall World Cup standings this winter, does not see an elusive Olympic Games medal as an impossibility.

"I'm getting old now, I'm getting towards the twilight of my career, but I still feel like there are things I can improve," Musgrave said.

What first came to mind for Musgrave after the Skiathlon was the need to work his Classic skiing until next season.

"But there are so many things I can improve; the technique, the speed… although speed is a little bit more difficult as you get older," he said.

The work is far from over for the 35-year-old Scot dreaming of boosting British Cross-Country with an Olympic medal next year.

"There are plenty of things that I can do to improve. You can always improve different physical, technical and tactical things. There is lots I can get better at."