Kristian Blummenfelt opens up to Rich Roll on Paris 2024 misery and why he wants to prove he can still achieve ‘Mission Impossible’ at LA 2028

Kristian Blummenfelt is not going pro cycling in 2025 and the Norwegian superstar has unfinished business with triathlon and his own personal ‘Mission Impossible’.

The 30-year-old spent most of 2024 trying to prove that he could successfully come back down from long-distance racing to Olympic distance to successfully defend his Olympic title in Paris. It was a bid which ultimately failed as the Bergen great trailed home a disappointing 12th in the French capital.

It was a bitter pill for Blummenfelt to swallow, coming on the back of three years where the famed ‘Norwegian Method’ executed perfectly by Kristian and team-mate Gustav Iden under the tutelage of ace coach Olav Aleksander Bu, had won every major prize in the sport.

The failure to be competitive at the front end of the race in Paris clearly cuts deep for ‘Big Blu’, he is not a man who knows failure well. And so coming back again for Los Angeles in 2028 is a definite possibility, with the desire to prove he can achieve what has been dubbed ‘Mission Impossible’ remaining strong.

Blummenfelt on Paris 2024 woe

He spoke at length about the topic to Rich Roll recently in a fascinating podcast (you can watch all of it at the bottom of this page), revealing: “I haven’t decided yet [whether to race L.A. 2028], but that feeling coming off Paris, thinking that I’m not too old but it was more mistakes done, I want to showcase that it’s possible to come down again from Ironman distance.

“Now, with the 12th place from Paris I would say the coming down from Ironman distance to Olympic distance project has been sort of a failure and I do want to come back again to show that it is possible.”

Blummenfelt spoke about his journey to Paris and how his bid to successfully move back down in distance had derailed, revealing: “I think straight after Kona two years ago, we went for the half-Ironman World Championship in St George again, which I won. And from there on we went directly into the project going back again to the Olympics in Paris,. It was a two-year qualification period, we were already 5 or 10 months late for the qualification but we started chasing the points.

“So we turned up at the World Series in Bermuda at the end of 2022 – I think I finished 6th or something there. Surprisingly high up there. From that point I think we were all quite optimistic and confident that the journey back to Olympic distance would not be easy, but it would definitely be doable. From there I would say it didn’t go as smoothly forward as expected.

The need for speed

“Did another race in Abu Dhabi, the Grand Final, at the end of 2022. I think I was still there or thereabouts [8th], and I felt like I was just missing a little gear and with a year-and-a-half of training I would definitely be able to close that gap.”

Blummenfelt’s confidence at the end of 2022 began to diminish in 2023, the top-end run speed he had been lacking was not coming back yet. And time was getting short with the big dance in France coming rapidly into view.

“But then all the races I did in 2023, I was 50/60 seconds basically too slow on the run in order to be competitive to race, and maybe getting a little bit worse in the water compared to what I was coming into Tokyo. So we knew I had that I had to do a big improvement on the run coming back again for the Olympic season, and also had to lift my swimming capabilities and maybe even sacrifice a little bit of my bike skills. In 2023 I was producing all-time good bike splits or bike power, but run and swim was maybe not where it needed to be.

“Started the 2024 season and I was basically the same sort of distance to the best guys, a minute off the pace, on the run. And that’s also where I ended up in Paris.”

Blummenfelt re-iterated that he believes mistakes in training were the biggest reason for that failure in Paris, but despite that he had still retained hope until very close to the Games, thanks to the way he had been tracking during a pre-Paris altitude camp in Font Romeu.

When the Norwegian came back down to sea level just before the Games though, his performance then told him deep down that things were not where they needed to be.

“You always try to trick yourself and tell yourself that you have a chance, but maybe I thought the chance is getting smaller and smaller with the pace I’m running.”