He leads the World Cup standings and is already selected for the Olympics, but believes that Johannes Thingnes Bø’s training program would have sent him far down the results lists. Johan-Olav Botn has chosen a completely different path to the top.

On Tuesday, the 26-year-old from Norway was officially selected for the Olympic Games in February as one of four male Norwegian biathletes. So far this season, he has recorded four World Cup victories and three additional podium finishes and now leads the overall World Cup standings by more than 100 points.

Also Read – Biathlon World Cup 2025/2026: Complete program for Oberhof

He is now being tipped as a potential star of the same caliber as Johannes Thingnes Bø. But that is where the similarities end. Botn’s route to the top is very different from that of the recently retired biathlon king.

“If I had trained like Johannes Thingnes Bø, I would have been 30th in the Norwegian Cup,” Botn told TV 2.

Botn suggests that he trains around 1,200 hours per year, which is significantly more than Thingnes Bø did, and almost twice as much as several of his competitors.

But it is precisely the training volume that has been the key to Botn’s success.

“When I started training a lot, the results came,” Botn says.

Read More: Biathlon World Cup 2025/2026: Standings after Annecy – Le Grand Bornand

Radically changed his training

However, it is not as if Botn was a complete unknown when he truly broke through in the World Cup this season.

In the 2023/2024 season, his first with the development national team, Botn claimed nine victories in the IBU Cup, won three medals at the European Championships, and took his first World Cup podium in just his fourth World Cup start. He also capped the season with his first-ever Norwegian national championship gold medal.

It was ahead of that season that Botn radically changed his training approach.

More than 100 hours per month

Speaking to Langrenn.com, Botn revealed that he exceeded 100 hours of training per month after restructuring his program. That represented an increase of around ten percent compared to the previous year. The additional training hours were mainly devoted to elements inspired by other endurance sports environments.

“Before, I was at around 1,000 hours of physical training per year, plus shooting practice. Now I’ve increased everything by about 10 percent, and we’ve incorporated elements from various endurance sports. Among other things, we’ve added double hard sessions inspired by the Ingebrigtsen brothers in athletics. Still, the way we implement them is influenced by what Blummenfelt and Iden do in triathlon,” Botn said, adding:

“The biggest difference compared to the previous year was that I introduced periods with double threshold sessions combined with high volume. That allowed me to train more and with better quality in the training I did.”

Botn has continued with this training philosophy and added even more volume. Ahead of last season, he also increased his focus on shooting, and he is now seeing the results. Botn rarely misses anymore.

Skipping this weekend’s World Cup

When the World Cup resumes this week, it will be without Johan-Olav Botn. The World Cup round in Oberhof is the first since the tragic death of Sivert Guttorm Bakken.

It was Botn who found Bakken dead in his hotel room on the difficult morning of December 23. Over the New Year weekend, ten days after the tragic incident, he spoke publicly for the first time about the shock, the chaos, and the days that followed.

Also Read: Norwegian biathlon star found dead in Italy

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