A Winter Olympics cross-country skiing star has set the internet ablaze with reactions to his extraordinary sprint uphill.
Norwegian phenomenon Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won his second gold of the Games in Milan and footage of him leaving his rivals in the dust went viral.
The clip shows the 29-year-old speeding at more than 10mph up a slope in footage that appeared to defy physics.
The extraordinary sight had viewers taking to social media in their droves, prompting one to upload an edit of the speedster accelerating away from a bear chasing him.
Even the Norwegian Prime Minister got in on the act. ‘What an athlete!’, Jonas Gahr Stoere wrote moments after the win.
‘Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo is virtually unbeatable in the sprint. Congratulations!’
Another compared Klaebo’s astonishing feat to the iconic scene in Rocky IV when Sylvester Stallone is seen motoring up a mountain on foot.
‘Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo’s sub-6 minute mile pace running uphill on skis is the most impressive snowy mountain sprint since Rocky shook his Soviet handlers before fighting Ivan Drago’, they wrote.
Another compared him to the legendary race horse Secretariat.
‘Watching Klaebo blow apart the end of a skate ski race with his crazy sprint is like watching Secretariat run away from the field.
‘The cameras have to pull back to show how impossible the performance is when comparing him to the rest of the best in the world. Always goosebumps.’
‘That guy looked like Roadrunner taking off from Wile E. Coyote,’ wrote another.
Klaebo comfortably won the preliminary rounds and final of the classic sprint on Tuesday, after which the footage went viral.
The 29-year-old is one medal away from the Winter Olympics all-time record tally of eight golds, shared by three retired Norwegian greats of cross-country skiing and biathlon.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo celebrates with his gold medal after his stunning sprint victory
A formidable sprinter, Klaebo won five golds, one silver and one bronze at the Winter Olympics in Beijing and Pyeongchang. He has evolved to dominate every aspect of cross-country skiing, winning his first distance race in the skiathlon on Sunday.
Added to his explosive finish is his breathtakingly fast hill climb – a brutal run that left other racers far behind on Tuesday in northern Italy.
Klaebo has taken the technical part of the sport to a new level, according to Ole Haldor Ensrud, a Norwegian coach with South Africa´s Olympic team.
He said: ‘What makes him a bit unique is how flexible he is in his technique. In skiing, unlike running for example, you have to adjust the technique all the time to the different terrains.”
Rival athletes add that his unmatched reserves of energy can be tapped in the late stages.
Fans went wild as Klaebo stormed up the hill at pace to claim yet another gold medal
‘I like to go to every race thinking that it´s a race for the win. But these days, a lot of the time it´s a race for second,’ US silver medalist Ben Ogden added.
His skills were honed on fast roller-ski tracks and through varied training that includes summer stints in the United States at Park City, Utah.
That earned him the ability to switch techniques quickly, maintaining speed while offering few openings for challengers.
