Two years ago, he won the Tour de Ski. Now he is seeing stars and feels suffocated. For Harald Østberg Amundsen, this year’s Tour has been a brutal grind.

Thursday’s pursuit race in Toblach was particularly punishing for the 2024 Tour de Ski winner.

“I’m just seeing stars at the end and feel like I’m being suffocated, but I just about make it to the finish,” Harald Østberg Amundsen told VG.

“I understand that my form and my body are a bit behind where they were before Christmas. Then it just hurts more and more.”

It was the same story in Monday’s 10-kilometer race, where he finished seventh.

The ambition was to use the 20-kilometer race to claw back some seconds on overall leader Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. That did not happen. Amundsen struggled to stay with the group he was in toward the finish, ended up ninth, and lost even more time to Klæbo.

After four of six stages, Amundsen now sits ninth overall, 1 minute and 3 seconds behind Klæbo.

Also Read: Tour de Ski 2025/2026: Standings after stage 4 in Toblach

In free fall

Amundsen opened the season with victory at the World Cup opener in Ruka and stood on the World Cup podium every weekend until Christmas. Then everything turned around.

At the Tour de Ski, his best results so far are two seventh-place finishes in the first two stages. In the new heat-format event, he finished 17th, and time-wise, his performance in Thursday’s pursuit would only be good enough for 14th place.

“It’s not the same explosiveness I had before Christmas. That’s a shame,” Amundsen admits.

Not ideal heading into the Olympics

Amundsen is one of five men who received the green light for the Olympics just before Christmas. There, he is a clear candidate for almost every event: the 10km freestyle, skiathlon, sprint, team sprint, and relay.

Read More: Eight Norwegian cross-country skiers confirmed for the Winter Olympics 2026

He had hoped to use the Tour de Ski, and specifically Thursday’s 20km classic, to secure one of the four spots for the Olympic 50km as well. Now he feels that the plan has fallen apart.

“The results in the Tour de Ski are below par. That part is a bit disappointing,” Amundsen says.

Searching for answers

The 27-year-old from Asker says he has struggled with his lungs since the World Cup in Davos, but has no obvious explanation beyond that for why his form now appears to be failing.

Amundsen is not the only team member dealing with form issues. On Friday, both Erik Valnes and Kristin Austgulen Fosnæs announced that they are leaving the Tour early because they cannot continue. They are exhausted and are prioritizing recovery over the final two stages.

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