The day after the Olympic selection was announced, Lars Heggen left the World Cup circuit and headed home from Switzerland. Now the 20-year-old Norwegian talks about the setback, and about his plan to hit back hard later this winter.

The day after the Olympic selection was announced, Lars Heggen left the World Cup circuit and headed home from Switzerland. Now the 20-year-old Norwegian talks about the setback, and about his plan to hit back hard later this winter.

Norwegian national championship gold, a World Cup victory, and podium finishes in the Tour de Ski. Still, it was a no for the Olympics for Lars Heggen (20). Now the young skier from Harestua puts words to the disappointment, and to the price a hectic winter has taken.

“I noticed after Oberhof that I was tired. There have been an extremely high number of ski races this winter, and it takes its toll. On top of that, there’s generally been a bit too much going on lately,” he tells the newspaper Hadeland.

“There have been some absolutely crazy days.”

Heggen has results that match, and on paper even surpass, several of the athletes selected for the Olympics.

Did you start dreaming about the Olympics?

“Yes, I got some hopes, especially after the wins at the national championships and in the World Cup. But at the same time, I didn’t quite dare to believe it, and I’ve delivered strong performances in a bit of the ‘wrong’ events,” he says.

“But it’s nothing to make a fuss about. The others are extremely well qualified.”

Also Read: Norwegian cross-country skiing team confirmed for the 2026 Winter Olympics

Heggen will now have to watch the Olympics from the couch and use the time to recharge. The plan is to come back brutally later this winter.

“There are many World Cup races left. I really want to ski the 50km in Holmenkollen,” he says.

“It’s actually completely crazy what I’ve managed to achieve,” he says.

Because when Heggen looks back on the first part of his first senior season, the milestones have come one after another.

The fact is that Heggen has made the skiing world gape in amazement ever since he stepped into the senior ranks at the season opener in Beitostølen in November.

Enormous talent

The 20-year-old from the private team Team Aker Dæhlie has not only handled the transition from junior level with ease. He is already being described as a generational athlete, one of the very few who appear in each generation. Petter Northug is one. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is another.

And Heggen has already begun to beat their records. When he won the sprint in Oberhof, it was his fifth World Cup start. When Klæbo won his first World Cup race, it was his sixth.

Lars Heggen masters both sprint and distance, as well as freestyle and classic. At the Norwegian Cup opener in Gålå in November, he secured a free spot for the World Cup in Trondheim the following weekend and went straight to the final in his World Cup debut, just 0.12 seconds off the podium.

Three weeks later, he claimed his first World Cup podium with second place in the sprint on the opening day of the Tour de Ski. A couple of days later, he took his second podium finish, placing third in the 5-kilometer race. Heggen also finished sixth overall in the tour.

Just over a week later, Heggen won gold in the Norwegian national championship sprint in Steinkjer, only minutes after his girlfriend, Milla Grosberghaugen Andreassen, had done the same. He then traveled on to the World Cup in Oberhof, where he won the sprint and finished ninth in the 10km race.

As a result, Heggen became impossible to ignore in the Olympic discussion, and national team coach Arild Monsen confirms that he was considered.

All of Heggen’s World Cup results so far

• Trondheim (Sprint C, skiathlon, 10 km F): 4, 19, 10
• Davos (10 km F): 8
• Tour de Ski: 2, 19, 3, 7 (17), 5, 29 – overall 6
• Oberhof (Sprint F, 10 km CL): 1, 9
• National Championships (Sprint CL): 1
• Beitostølen (Sprint CL, 10 km CL, 10 km F): 26, 2, 5
• Gålå (10 km F, Sprint CL): 3, 5

See all results

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