Kristian Blummenfelt exclusive: "In one way you have to be robotic"
Kristian Blummenfelt may have next year’s Tour de France in mind, but this week the more immediate goal is clear: to defend his Olympic triathlon title.
The Norwegian knows that won’t be easy, but is looking forward to a test that he has made tougher through his own choices.
Since winning at Tokyo 2020, Blummenfelt has taken on longer-course Ironman events, achieving history along the way, and making for what he describes as an “interesting journey and a big challenge” by switching back to short course in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
And having essentially – in his own words – “changed sports”, he is relishing the tag as favourite as he once more takes on Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde, who completed the podium in Tokyo three years ago.
“I like to be favourite going into a race, but also like to feel it. I've done the job, and I'm in the fitness that I need to be in order to win the race,” Blummenfelt told Olympics.com.
“So as long as I feel, I have what it takes to win. I do enjoy the pressure and like that sort of expectation from people around that I'm the guy to beat, and I felt that was the position I was in going into Tokyo.
“The strange thing now, maybe because of what I did in long course and my journey back to short course, I feel there is actually more people who are in other people's eyes bigger favourites to win the race in Paris, like Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde.
“They are maybe showing that they are the faster runners of the ones who have been doing it for the last two or three years. But of course, in my head, I'm focusing on that gold medal again.”
Kristian Blummenfelt: From Ironman back to Olympian
Blummenfelt, who won gold in Tokyo by 11 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Yee, went on to win the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in 2022.
In doing so, ‘Big Blu’, as he is affectionately known, became the first man to hold the Olympic, World Triathlon Championship Series, and Ironman titles.
And despite winning it all, the hunger remains as he focuses back on the Olympic distance of a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle, and 10 km run.
He said: “Often after the Olympic Games and after a win, you get this period over a year or two feeling ‘What's next?’ because you felt like you have achieved the biggest thing you can do.
“But we went straight on to have a new goal, something nobody else has been able to do, to show that I can handle both the short course and the long course.
“Now, doing it reverse again, going from the long distance and back to the short course, it hasn't really been that much time to rest in between those.
“There's normally a transition something like five or six or seven years, and we did it in less than a year, so it's been busy, you can say, and I think the fact that the challenge has been so big, there hasn't been enough time to settle down, rest or get demotivated.”
Kristian Blummenfelt still going strong at 30
Having turned 30 in February, Blummenfelt is only looking at the positives of reaching this landmark age, and remains focused on leaving a legacy long after he eventually retires.
“I think it's all athletes' dream to be able to set the footprints in the sport that nobody else would be able to replicate in the future,” he says.
“And, of course, I've had a great beginning, I would say, over the last three years with taking two titles from short course up to a full distance and even including an Olympic gold medal there.
“Now I want to show that I can jump back and forth, and even after the Paris Olympic Games, the goal is to go straight into the full distance, Ironman again.
“The challenge itself is what's motivating. It’s like you're almost standing on or swimming in deep water because it's unsecure, you don't really know what you have to do, how the body will respond. It that scary feeling that's driving me as well.”
On his age, he adds: “I think physically, the age hasn't changed too much. Maybe I look a bit older, a bit less hair, but other than that, I feel I'm responding pretty much the same way in training.
“You often see younger athletes take more risk, and as I'm getting into the 30s I'm sort of keeping that hunger and sort of youth that's inside me.”
Kristian Blummenfelt: ‘I only visualise winning the race’
Blummenfelt admits training can be “boring” at times but keeping a “robotic” like focus has helped him improve as he looks to follow Alistair Brownlee (London 2012 and Rio 2016) in defending his Olympic triathlon crown.
“In one way you have to be robotic,” he says. “Especially in training, to just get it done, because it's basically doing the same day in and day out, typically three sessions per day.
“But it's about finding stuff that motivates you, and for me, it's being able to use numbers and sensors to be able to figure out weaknesses and where I can improve. From there, you can sort of use that robotic mindset in order to improve the performance.
“But then again, I think in the end, you can't just go by numbers in the race. You have to also use your heart and your feeling and your emotions. I think that's where I'm often able to sort of get the best out of myself, like really squeezing out what's left in.”
And all that training is with one thing in mind, a vision Blummenfelt has of defending his title.
“I think about Paris,” he adds, “visualising the finish line. I only visualised that I'm winning the race, and I hope that that's what's going to happen.”