Never has a biathlete been as dominant as Johannes Thingnes Bø this season. With 11 individual World Cup victories out of a possible 14, three World Cup golds in three attempts, on top of the podium in all races in 2023, and a cross-country speed that no one comes close to, it is no wonder that the competitors call him “frustratingly good”. – We have never seen him as strong as now, and never such a complete biathlete, states news’s expert Harri Luchsinger. INNFRIDDE: Johannes Thingnes Bø has won all the sprints this season, also in the WC. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB But what really makes him so good? It is of course complex, but the main reason that Thingnes Bø himself highlights is perhaps not so obvious. THE BODY But at 187 centimeters, Johannes Thingnes Bø has good and important reach. Good genes are also highlighted. – He looks like an athlete who is built and has a body suitable for creating power, says Ola Lunde. – There is no doubt that Johannes has good genetics and combines this with good training intelligence. Ever since he was young, he has managed to come back quickly after illness and has often trained less than others, but still been good. He probably responds quickly to training, points out Øyvind Sandbakk. He is a professor at the Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science at NTNU, where he is also head of the Center for Top Sports Research. Thingnes Bø himself is clear that he is also careful to adapt his body where he can. BODY FOCUS: Johannes Thingnes Bø is honest about adapting his body to biathlon in season. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB – I think little about my body until November, and then I think about it extremely much from November to March. With the right nutrition at the right time, he makes sure that the weight does not become too high, in order to be able to climb the slopes quickly without getting high lactate. – The heavier and stronger you are, the more lactate there is. I think I have a good balance between being thin and light and being big and strong, he says. – When you think “extremely much” about your body, how careful is the form? – It is quite careful. It is relatively easy, because what we do is so routine. When we are at the World Cup, the days are the same. If you can only manage one day, you can manage three weeks. Everything is the same. Then you vary a little, with a little more intake for the competition, and when the competition weekend is over, you take a little less again, says Thingnes Bø. Among other things, he stays away from dessert and sweets. At the gold party after the sprint, he handed out pieces of cake, but did not taste them himself. – That’s the flip side of the coin, but I’ll take it back after the season. Tailoring the body in pursuit of gold: – I didn’t want to get thin. I wanted to be the best. RENNHODET It is not unusual to see the 29-year-old almost playing with his competitors, and it may seem that he oozes security. But Thingnes Bø believes he is not really the mentally strongest in the field, and points out that it is not necessary either. – In biathlon, it’s about not being bad and not being weak, and I’m very good at that, he sums up with a grin. But when it comes to concentration and focus, he excels. He is very focused during both competitions and training. news’s expert Harri Luchsinger has written a master’s thesis in which he examined brain activity during shooting before and after physical exertion among cross-country runners and biathletes. news EXPERT: Harri Luchsinger. Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news – He has his own ability to focus on the right sensory stimuli, what we call focused attention. As a biathlete, you get constant sensory impressions at the stand, but Thingnes Bø is able to filter out what is irrelevant, such as the audience or competitors. He ends up in tunnel vision, and has steel control, explains Luchsinger. Luchsinger, who previously worked with development in the Norwegian Biathlon Union, points out that the ability to focus and concentrate must be trained. Something Thingnes Bø also has a conscious relationship with. At the same time, the World Cup leader is not the field’s strongest shooter, with a hit percentage of 91 when lying down and 86 when standing. When he hit 20 out of 20 at Sunday’s WC start, it was for the first time in three years. – Despite his somewhat sloppy shooting technique, he hits, and the most important thing: When he ends up in a decisive situation, he often finishes to his advantage, says news’s expert. FOCUS: Johannes Thingnes Bø believes he is stronger at concentration than the mental. Photo: JURE MAKOVEC / AFP He also has a unique ability to reset if things go wrong, Luchsinger believes. He probably learned a lot after he struggled for a period while standing in 2019. – When you are successful, you build security. It is often doubt that leads to pondering when you stand there on the mat. Then you have already used brain capacity for something else, while he is good at focused attention. It is not accidental. Those who have seen Johannes in training know that he is very concentrated and efficient in training, Luchsinger believes. TRAINING QUALITY Because when Thingnes Bø first trains, he is very conscious that all sessions must be with 100 per cent effort. It must be effective. – I think that with the amount of training I have, I have the opportunity to be extreme all the time. I quickly notice when the sessions get longer, it is difficult to maintain concentration. The fact that my sessions very rarely last more than two hours means that I can stay focused throughout, says Stryningen. Before this season, he acquired his own roller ski mill in the basement at home in Kongsvinger. It has been used extensively. But the total number of training hours is small compared to most top athletes. He doesn’t keep a training diary either, but Thingnes Bø has a certain overview. – I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that in a very good month, I’ll probably put in 60 hours. In comparison, Therese Johaug could sleep more than double in a summer month. – Johannes is quite unique, and I have said for a long time that he has something from nature that quite a few people are envious of. He has mostly managed that in a good way, because his talent is enormous. When he does the right things, nobody comes close to that level. THREE OF THREE: It is difficult to find pictures of Johannes Thingnes Bø where he is not smiling after finishing this year. Here from the start of the WC hunt. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB That’s what coach Egil Kristiansen says. He admits that he has sometimes become frustrated with the student, because he just hasn’t done the right things. Before this season, Kristiansen believes that Bø has gained more structure in his everyday life. – I think the main reason is that he has calmed down. He has finished building a house, has moved into Kongsvinger and it is quiet. When he is at home, he can concentrate on training and rest, being with Gustav and his family, without many other things floating around in his head. NTNU professor Sandbakk mentions in the context of training the concept of O2 kinetics, which means the ability to regulate oxygen uptake quickly when encountering varying terrain and in connection with shooting. This is an important capacity in biathlon, in addition to good endurance and technique. Thingnes Bø is both persistent and has good technique, but is also capable of quickly increasing the pace. NTNU PROFESSOR: Øyvind Sandbakk. Photo: Kim Sørenssen, NTNU – I think he has a unique combination that suits biathlon particularly well, says Sandbakk, and elaborates: – In biathlon there is a lot of ups and downs, short counterslopes and changes in the terrain, and Thingnes Bø seems to manage to regulate this exceptionally well. For example, he has the ability to withstand hard openings, which can also give him a mental advantage, because then he knows he can have a boom. When he’s in shape, he’s quite unique. THE TECHNIQUE There is no doubt that he is in form this season, and several times the commentators have exclaimed: “look at that double dance!” – There is no doubt that he is good technically. He gets much of the power down into his skis and has a good connection between upper body and legs, which gives him forward momentum, analyzes cross-country researcher Sandbakk. It’s a technique Thingnes Bø has perfected since the national team got new coaches before the 2016/17 season. Egil Kristiansen gets the honor. – That’s how I like to ski. After all, you are going forward, but you still have to have a certain force in your thrusts to push yourself forward. At the start we scratched a bit, but that’s probably what I’ve become better at, compared to before when I maybe went a little more from side to side. Now it is more longitudinal and there is a little more automaticity. I don’t fall out of position when I get tired, Thingnes Bø explains. Kristiansen believes that the technique is not really that difficult and points out that the whole team has the same philosophy. – He works very hard to get the ski in the direction of speed. The others get it too, so he is not miles ahead of the others technically, but there is a little personality over the technique. Johannes also has a body so it looks like he floats very well, explains the national team coach. The cross-country times at Thingnes Bø have never been better. At the gold sprint in Oberhof, he was also in a class of his own. Even not in the years when Martin Fourcade was the best in the field, someone was as superior as Thingnes Bø is now. What is also special is that the Norwegian alone accounts for this distance to 2nd place: Photo: Harri Luschinger EQUIPMENT But Thingnes Bø also admits that the fact that he is top priority at the ski manufacturer Fischer, and gets the very best skis first, has much to say. – That is an extremely big advantage. It also shows how important it is to be loyal to a partner over time, to build a relationship, he believes. In addition, the Bø brothers have a personal service man in the Norwegian lubrication team. Gian Luca Marcolini has been responsible for Bøs ski for nine years. – He can pick the right ski for me. There, we are different and the skis are very adapted to each athlete. There are some skis that suit one athlete, while others may like stiffer or softer skis. But I think we are talking about marginal differences, says the 29-year-old. GOOD SKI: Norwegian runners often have good skis, and make sure to show them off and thank them in interviews. Photo: VINCENZO PINTO / AFP In any case, it provides great security. – Johannes trusts his service man a lot, and it is extremely important to have that trust in the person who works with your skis. Johannes hardly tests skis anymore, he just gets them and trusts that they are good. It is largely thanks to the fact that he both has first priority and has a very good service man in Gian Luca, confirms Egil Kristiansen. THE FAMILY – These were our points, but which points do you think we have forgotten? asks news. – It’s because I’m very family-oriented, then. That I like myself best at home. It may be the main success behind the good results, Thingnes Bø answers. He talks about his wife Hedda and his three-year-old son Gustav. The 29-year-old thinks it only gets worse and worse to be away from home so much, but feels that the good results help to make it so. – There are often things that are not talked about. If things have gone well with sport, it is often because you have trained best or prepared best. But perhaps this is the hidden effect. To lie on the complete opposite. That’s where I stand out from the others. I’ve been a dad for three years now and it’s been three good years, he notes with a grin. BEST HOME: His wife Hedda Dæhli Bø welcomed Johannes Thingnes Bø as Olympic king after the games in Beijing. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB – Does Gustav understand more of what you do now? He probably understands a little more. He is not as fond of chatting on FaceTime as he is in real life, so that distance is still too great. It will be good to come home. – But has he realized that you are good? – Yes, I think he is. I hope so, answers Johannes Thingnes Bø.
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