Top Greatest Cross Country Skiers Ever

[@xcskiing_universe]

I should perhaps have been more clear about this in the video (forgot to put in in there) but as you see there are no people included from before the 70's. This list is for the best skiers - in MODERN history. Not all time. The reasons for that are both that it's hard to compare to the times when they competed on wooden skis (it was a very different sport) and having to include too many of those guys would have messed up the video quality here. That's why you maybe are thinking that a few old guys are missing on this list.

[@torvilasulvstle362]

And there were fewer gold medals to win in each Championship.

[@user-ui3dv5ek7l]

I think you underestimated Klaebo who has far more wc victories than anyone else..Daehli would not have done particularly well in sprints. He was not an allround skier in that sense. After the 2023-24 season I would put Klaebo in the no. 1 spot. He did really well in distance skiing too. He should have won the wc last season too, but the point system favoured consistency over no. of wc victories to an absurd degree. Klaebo has fewer gold medals than Northug though.

[@cairdhubain]

Ulvang belongs somewhere on that list in my opinon!

[@田村広流]

I wholeheartedly agree with the statement 'Northug made cross-country skiing cool'. And I think you are cool too for not only evaluating based on achievements alone. Thank you for the wonderful video.

[@aapohietala7719]

My list is: 20. Hans Christer Holund🇧🇻 19. Torgny Morgen🇸🇪 18. Per Elofson🇸🇪 17. Andre Veerpalu🇪🇪 16. Eero Mäntyranta🇫🇮 15. Veikko Hakulinen🇫🇮 14. Martin Johnsrud Sundby🇧🇻 13. Vegard Ulvang🇧🇻 12. Thomas Alsgaard🇧🇻 11. Mika Myllylä🇫🇮 10. Thomas Wassberg🇸🇪 9. Iivo Niskanen🇫🇮 8. Vladimir Smirnov🇰🇿 7. Sixten Jernberg🇸🇪 6. Gunde Svan🇸🇪 5. Aleksandr Bolshunov🇷🇺 4. Dario Cologna🇨🇭 3. Johannes Hosflot Klaebo🇧🇻 2. Petter Northug🇧🇻 1. Bjørn Daehlie🇧🇻

[@Alo-c9s9v]

NIce List...but ;P Lets wait for my son. Completely by accident his names are Ivo Federico and hes been born at 19.06 like Bjorn Daehlie. He is just 15teen. Remember this Polish young skier ;)

[@Lepalmgre]

If we only count individual results. The principle 7-5-3 points for Olympic medals and 5-3-1 for WC medals, the list will be as follows. The Olympics every 4 years makes the Olympics "bigger" and more meritorious. 1 Daehli 94 2 Smirnov 54 3 Gunde 51 4 Northug 48 5 Klaebo 39 6 Cologna 39 7 Bolsjunov 38 8 Alsgaard 35 9 Wassberg 33 10 Kruger 30 11 Ulvang 29 12 Zimjatov 27 13 Sundby 22 14 Johan O 22 15 Niskanen 22 16 Mogren 18 17 de Zolt 18 18 Elofsson 17 19 Hellner 16 20 Bauer 12 21 Ustiugov 11 22 Formo 9 23 Röthe 7 24 Brå 5 If we give 2 points for Olympic gold in relay and 1 point for WC gold in relay, Northug and Aalsgård get a slightly higher ranking. Brå has one WC gold, that's it! Jernberg 50 points and Hakulinen 46, with not som many championships. Points and rank for Tour de ski, World cup-races, stylish skiing, is for entertainment magazines... ;-)

[@thomaskrummel6120]

Well done- Ulvang is a surprise omission ?

[@bennywallin5252]

Dählie absolut, han är GOAT i mitt tycke, men man har ju helt (!!!!!) glömt en viss Sixten Jernberg. Fyra OS-guld och fyra VM-guld, bäst någonsin i Sverige och han borde platsa på listan.

[@henriks5008]

1970 ---> Sixten er for gammel for denne listen. ;)

[@joukonurmela3713]

Eero Mäntyranta,Juha Mieto,Mika Myllylä Veikko Hakulinen ,Iivo Niskanen ,Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen ,Raisa Smetanina,Alvetina Koltshin ja paljon muita.👏👍

[@chessgains8075]

Klaebo is all ready in conversation of GOAT. If he can countinue like hes doing for just a few years it should be clear. And I agree individual gold in distance is needed too!

[@josefinandersson7646]

Yes but its mostly because of the sprint. If you remove sprint, he would not have won a single world cup total yet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_H%C3%B8sflot_Kl%C3%A6bo

[@viggosnoghoej5330]

Northug is the G O A T

[@juneelee9910]

Where is V. Ulbang?

[@Arsencka]

Можно спросить Где Крюков Никита?

[@polybomu_517]

Ты на приколе? Пару побед рандомных в спринтах не делает спортсмена лучшим в истории. С таким же успехом можно спросить, где в топе лучших за всю историю победитель первенства Москвы

[@freultwah]

One thing that sets Klæbo apart from the other greats is that he is at best a top 10 guy in interval starts, never near top 3 and often far behind. He's great at sprints and mass starts, tagging along and attacking from behind when it's tactically perfect. The other guys here (including Northug later in his career) could hold their own in the 'man alone against the forest' discipline of interval starts. I would argue that most even never did mass starts elsewhere than at Holmenkollen or the like.

[@swiftzer0286]

Except klæbo is amazing at interval starts. Why do you think hes at best 3rd in most races when he wins more than he loses?

[@lereza4876]

What’s the race on 15:48?? Help pls😭😭

[@xcskiing_universe]

Seefeld 2019, sprint relay

[@РоманКозин-п2у]

Николай Зимятов

[@okramerj]

Ulvang?

[@johannmuhlegg69]

Sixten Jernberg snur seg i grava as we speak

[@xcskiing_universe]

Hahaha! Burde kanskje presisert det i videoen her, at det er snakk om i moderne tid. Valgte å ikke ta med for 100år sida-kara, av flere årsaker. Det ville blant annet påvirket videokvalitet og opplevelsen som en helhet for mye negativt. Dessuten er det vanskelig å sammenligne med tre-ski-tiden.

[@johannmuhlegg69]

@@xcskiing_universe Haha ser den, trodde det var fra etterkrigstiden elns, ettersom at du hadde med Ivar Formo fra 70-tallet (Jernberg konkurrerte på 50-og- 60-tallet) men var vel dårlig med fargefjernsyn på den tiden

[@mikaelgimvall958]

@@johannmuhlegg69 jernberg å petter har samma psyke....best när det gäller

[@kevinhawker2946]

Vegard Ulvang?

[@marcussilander4957]

Torgy Mogren won twice in 50k in WC; -91 and -93

[@alistairmills7608]

💚💛💚💛💚💛💚

[@mikaelgimvall958]

Vars är Sixten Järnberg ? 5 mils kungen på mästerskap lika som Petter. Sixten vann Vasaloppet ochså.

[@xcskiing_universe]

Les den festede kommentaren her. Valgte å starte "tidsregningen" her fra etter de begynte å gå på glassfiberski. Jernberg var før dette. Enig i at han er en av de beste ever, men treski-tiden er altså ikke inkludert her

[@mikaelgimvall958]

@@xcskiing_universe ok

[@mikaelgimvall958]

psyke same same Petter

[@levirichter2226]

Забавно, мне казалось, что Утюга лосем кличут, а не медведем. Ну и порядок странный. Ставить Большенытика выше Колоньи. Мое почтение. Ну и Дэйли не может быть ниже Нортуга. Регалий у него побольше Петьки

[@xcskiing_universe]

Bolshunov achieved almost the same amount of world cup victories in a much shorter period of time compared to Cologna. He had, already at the age of 25/26, 28 world cup wins. it's much more impressive to do this in such a short time. Cologna had 10 + more years to do the same

[@levirichter2226]

@@xcskiing_universe у Дарио 3 подряд олимпиады с золотом. 3 золота подряд на 15 км. И звание 4 кратного ОЧ. И 4 победы в общем зачете. Количество побед на кубке мира и время их завоевание - второстепенные показатели.

[@juhokoskinen1617]

Mika Myllyla easily top10

[@mikaelgimvall958]

Mika....was cheating doped

[@didacb88]

❤

[@ВитекКислый-л8к]

Рейтинг не плохой, но есть моменты, с которыми не согласен

[@deadenear]

No Italians ? They kept Norway in check for many seasons.

[@mikaelgimvall958]

doping as vladimir smirnoff was fy fan

[@deadenear]

@@mikaelgimvall958 now that's funny. If you can't beat someone they must be doping.

[@andersmo898]

Tro om Gunde Svahn kommer før dæhlie

[@bonnes09]

If you would factor in sportsmanship, petter falls very deep on that list…i remember so many races where he never helped in front only to preserve his energy….and you crown that with his ability to sprint in the end…well for me personally how a man behaves outside of the race matters as well and i would argue petter wasn’t very well liked for various reasons.

[@xcskiing_universe]

Hahaha. I get your point of view. Glad to see different opinions in the comment section.

[@emmellj7133]

I will never forget when the cheater Johann Mühlegg destroyed Per Elofsson.

[@starcusmcr3964]

What happened?.

[@MrKveite1]

He had doping running out of his ears and Elofsson decided to follow him and basicly destroyed himself, he was never the same after that race@@starcusmcr3964

[@mikaelgimvall958]

@@starcusmcr3964 Per hade svagt psyke

[@andersmo898]

Bare vas dette

[@xcskiing_universe]

Hva skulle vært annerledes?

[@andersmo898]

@@xcskiing_universe hard dom før jeg så hele videoen🙂,jeg holder Dæhlie først.

[@Nerdcrusher]

Svan has the highest win % of ANYONE (male or female) except Kläbo. Also, Sixten Jernberg. Come on.

[@josefinandersson7646]

it hard to compare sometimes. kläbo is the best sprinter but not the best on longer distance. Northug was just great in everything, the best in sprint, probobly the best in masstart, and one of the best in distance/individual start. Dählie was great and won alot. Svan also won alot. I dont really know beccause you have to think about many variabels and compare sprint/distance, how many medals they took ,for how long they were at the top, how many total cups they won, and so. In the end, i would say: 1.northug 2.dählie 3.kläbo 4.svan Many russians have been subjet to cheating but even then, i dont think they are at the very top on the list.

[@Tpeltol]

True. And also it’s really difficult to factor in the developments in the sport. How would Klabo do against Dahlie or Myllyla in 50 km classic the old fashioned way? Skiing today favors slightly different characteristics than before. Obviously they are more versatile today than 20-30 years ago, but also lack slightly in distance capabilities in comparison.

[@sueschroeder674]

Hmmm… how about: Marit Bjorgen, Therese Johaug, Charlotte Kalla, Jessie Diggins, etc. etc. what do these stars have in common?

[@xcskiing_universe]

I have made an own video for women. It’s called “Top Greatest Female Skiers Ever” and you can find it on my channel. It got published very recently

[@alexzingman7594]

Большунов номер один. Абсолютно в этом уверен.

[@mariusemiliansolemsaursaunet]

No, No, No, I think if the russians werent banned he has the potential to be top 3, but as of now clear no

[@alexzingman7594]

@@mariusemiliansolemsaursaunet Я остаюсь при своём мнении!

[@flame6242]

@alexzingman7594 Petter Nortug and Klæbo would both destroyed if thei was in their prime and same with bolsonov or how his name is writen

[@alexzingman7594]

@@flame6242 Большунов номер один

[@vladislavovich100]

You can take all former Soviet skiers out. Sundby - cheater too, which is sad, because it was post Soviet and Soviet cheating skiers pushed some of Nordic, especially Norwegian, skiers to cheat too. But I completely agree with number one!

[@davd1986]

Grow up.

[@СтаниславНюкша]

Nonsense

[@blazerprophet]

Good point.

[@swiftzer0286]

Except sundby which used astma medicine because he needs it I agree that the Soviets and Russians cheated

[@swiftzer0286]

Sundby has asthma he depends on his medisiner which btw is approved by wada he just registred it wrongly

[@mariusemiliansolemsaursaunet]

How is not legkov or vylegzhanin in there and kryokov is atleast better than røthe and dario should be 3rd and sunby is way to high on the list, but the rest is good

[@xcskiing_universe]

Prøvde å unngå å ha med straight out juksemakere som Legkov og Vylegzhanin. Og ja, det er ingen tvil om at de juksa i Sochi. Man er bare naiv hvis man ikke innser det og bevisene er fullstendig overtydelige. Angående Cologna og Sundby: medaljer er ikke det eneste som teller. Det handler også om peak level. Sundby i toppversjon var mye mer dominant enn Cologna. Han nådde trolig en høyere topp. Medaljer er en viktig del av det, men det kan ikke diktere alle rangeringer. Må se på mer enn bare det. Hvem var faktisk best over lengre perioder? Eks. Wassberg har flere medaljer enn Brå. Men Brå VAR en bedre skiløper enn Wassberg sett 10 år under ett. Må se det totale bildet

[@mariusemiliansolemsaursaunet]

@@xcskiing_universe legkov er jeg ikke helt sikker på, men vylegzhanin ble bare dratt under bussen tviler sterkt på at han dopet seg og Sundby var den beste løperen fra 2015-2017, men det var ikke like høy konkurranse da som når cologna var på sitt beste, som du skrev i videoen har cologna 4 sammenlagtseiere i wc, det har ikke Sundby og det gikk 9 år mellom cologna sin første sammenlagtseier i verdenscupen til hans siste Ol gull, det er vel å være god i en lang periode det da