Bjørn Dæli sin Fysiologiske grunn til suksess

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Avhandling i 1997 på Engelsk om den Fysiologiske grunnen til Bjørn Dælis suksess i skisporet av Fysiolog Stephen Seiler

Bjørn Dæli rett etter målpasering i sin
fantastiske 5mils seier i Nagano OL

Bjørn Daehlie- Ingredients for Success


If there is an endurance athlete equivalent to Michael Jordan, I think you could make a strong argument for Norwegian cross country skier, Bjørn Dæhlie. In a sport that has been remarkable in exercise physiology circles for its concentration of physiological marvels, NO cross country skier has every dominated the sport the way this 29 year old from Nannestad Skiklub in Norway has.

This year he has started the brutally competitive World Cup season with 3 victories in 4 races, and the margins have not even been close, in a sport where the performance differences over 10s of kilometers are frighteningly small.

Now, there 60 days or so until the World Championships on "home turf" in Trondheim, Norway. Bjørn Dæhlie is concerned. One might ask, "What is he worried about? He owns the tracks, dude."
Dæhlie has a personal test of his physical capacity that he has been performing for years. It is basically a 6 minute all out effort on the skis, on his own standard course. Every year for 10 years he has improved , until this year. "In the six minute test this Fall, I am 2 or 3 seconds behind my best effort." This evidence tells him that the gold medals from Trondheim are not automatically going to be hung around his neck. Four previous Olympic golds and two silvers, 6 world championship golds and 3 silvers, and 4 World Cup points championships are one thing. February, 1997 in front of the home crowd, is something different. In his own eyes, he is not the "reigning world champion". That is something he aspires to be. The ability to forget the glory of past successes, but remember how they are produced; this is what helps him get through the two training sessions per day, 3 hour training trips, intervals and strength training that await him between now and February 21.

What is So Special about Dæhlie?
I am a physiologist and a sports scientist. So, when I watch him on the television (which is fortunately often here in Norway), I am thinking about him as a machine and trying to grasp what this machine has that the others don't. After some help from those who have been around him, I realize that this view can only take me so far. Bjørn Dæhlie IS a physiological marvel, make no mistake. He is on top of the VO2 max list among the Norwegian skiers, at or near 90 ml/min/kg! His technique is excellent. His fiber composition is ideal. However, when I asked my colleague if there was anything he could detect from the testing that clearly separated Dæhlie from others that are also so very gifted, the answer was not a physiological one. There have been in Norway, and are in other countries, other skiers with similar V02 max values. But they never won 33 world cup victories.

The Killer Instinct
When the other skiers face a treadmill test, they generally pre-determine a value that they expect to achieve, something inhuman like 84 ml/min/kg. When and if they reach that improbably high value, they are FINISHED. Daehlie sets no such limits. "I have watched him during a test, when the going was getting really tough. He might plateau at 85 ml/min/kg for 2 or 3, 20 second readings (on a treadmill at a steep 10% slope). Everyone else stops at that point. Dæhlie keeps running, and amazingly, the values climb some more, to 86, 87, 88 ml/min/kg. When he is finally finished we have had to hit the emergency stop so we could collect him from the back end of the treadmill, where his shoulder was being rubbed raw by the belt sliding below his exhausted body." The Dæhlie difference is his absolute killer instinct. He never backs down. Whe you see Dæhlie fling his body across the finish line and collapse in a heap, that isn't theatrics. It is the only way he knows how to race. Combine that ability to maximally extend himself with his genetic gifts and years and years of training, then you have most of the ingredients for the most successful XC skier ever. But there are two others.

Part of a Great Team
"This entire winter, I have had great skis", says Daehlie "There is a system around the skis that functions very well". The men who take care of the skis, Magner Dahlen, and Per Knut Aaland, were in the spotlight on December 16 in Oberdsdorf, Germany. There, Daehlie won the 30k classic race and was followed by seven other Norwegian men in the top 10. The first 4 women across the line were Norwegians. I watched the race in amazement on TV. It might as well have been a Norwegian national championship event. Why were the Norwegians so much better? The difference was the skis. When a sudden weather change brought early morning rain on race day, the Norwegian support team had been up all night preparing for that eventuality. They figured out a klister blend that made a difference. The had retired racers out testing the skis with their still elite level technique. When Daehlie warmed up he had not one set of skis, but two, with different "recipes" from which to choose. He chose the ones with a more secure grip instead of the ones with the best glide. He chose right. The skis matter. And Dæhlie is surrounded by guys that make sure they get them right. "If I had to take care of the skis myself, they would just sit in the bag until the next race."

The Final Ingredient
Bjørn Dæhlie trains often and he trains hard. Thirty hours a week or more is usual during the late Fall. However, as much as that is, he is not alone. All the top skiers put in the hours, and they never shy away from hard work. One thing that seems to distinguish great XC skiers is that they love being outside, in the terrain. The best seem to always come from remote little places. It is tough to become a great skier if you are a city boy. The challenge for the world class skier is to find the perfect balance that GETS them to top form and KEEPS them in top form through the several months of frequent racing. Very few manage that. They get ill, they get stale, they overtrain, they peak too soon, or not at all. According to those who have seen him in action, Dæhlie is an absolute master of knowing just how hard and how long to push his body during training. Dæhlie is in good form now in December, but he doesn't want it to be "great", not yet. He knows that the season is long and the big prize isn't fought for until late February. He also knows that his victories before Christmas are the product of has basic conditioning training in the Fall. So now, he is pushing his basic training phase farther into the season then normal, to avoid peaking and then crashing too soon. "The years I have won gold before, I have gone faster in December and January. Take for example, 1993 in Falun. Then my form fell off immediately after the championships. Fortunately others had the same problem as me. By the time the championships come, it is too long since we have done our basic (high volume) training."

The Dæhlie Decade-In review
Here are some details about his rise to dominance. The story is always the same, the great performers take years to reach their peak.

Spring 1987- At age 19, he gets his first start in a world cup race, of all places in the demanding 50k Holmenkollen race. He was awarded the start because he had won the junior championship in Norway by more than 20 seconds. He finished 25th that year. Daehlie remarked that he was so happy to be part of the world cup that he nearly cried with joy. By this age, he was already known for his joy of training. "What distinguished me as a teenager was that I was unusually willing to train, Summer or winter. Alone, in the dark, with a headlamp, in the rain, I would do intervals on the steep hills in Maura." His results in other races in 1987-88 were: 41st, 65th, 24th, and 29th.

1988-89 Season- A fourth place, a sixth place were the highlights. The other races looked like this: 23rd, 28th, 19th, 10th, 13th, 20, 12th (Worlds), and 15th.

1989-90 The Breakthrough He won his first World Cup race in December 1989 in Salt Lake City, Utah, then won two more after January. He competed in a total of 9 events that year.

1990-1991 More Development Two victories and a 2nd in 1990, but also 5 races outside the top 10.

1991-92 First Olympic Golds- Four World Cup wins plus 2 Olympic golds and one silver in 12 starts.

1992-93 Two World championships plus 4 other World cip victories

1993-94 Two Olympic Golds and a silver

1994-95 Six World Cup wins, plus 3 silvers in the World Championships. Also one 48th place and a 31st place, proving that even the legeneds have off days.....Sometimes.

1995-96 Six World Cup victories and four 2nds in 14 starts.

1996-1997 ????? Three world Cup wins as of December 20th, in 4 starts.

Folks, watch this guy ski every chance you get. The day is not so far away when he will hang up the skis and complete the trasition to his new career of selling his own new line of ski clothes. Even he admits that it is getting really tough to keep suffering through the training every year. I am sure the clothes he sells will be great. Unfortunately, what he can't sell is his unique talent, training savvy and dedication. Well maybe that is a good thing. I would hate to see a bunch of middle aged men with love-handles going fast on skis, just because they were rich!

UPDATE: Feb 4, 1997
When I wrote this article in December, Dæhlie was clearly on top of his form. The big question in his mind and others was, could he hold top form until February. That question remains at the forefront of eveyone's minds here in Norway with two weeks until the Worlds. Dæhlie has slipped. He has been attacked from within by colds and flu. He has been attacked from outside by the entire altitude training controversy that raged here in Norway during January. Is altitude training unethical? Are high altitude simulation houses unethical even if not considered illegal. Does Dæhlie win because of altitude houses and camping wagons equipped to function as "the Alps in a Winnebago"? The press in Norway are not so different from the US or British press; the will work a story to death, and wear down even the most patient athlete with their pursuit. Dæhlie is not a World Cup champion because of altitude houses. If that was enough, there would be champions from Sweden, Finland, Italy and other countries were specialized altitude training methods are used. He is champion because of natural talent and an accumulated 10,000 + hours of consistent, intelligent, hard training. I say that not as a Norwegian loyalist ( I am from Texas), but as a physiologist. To be honest, I think the psychological pressure has brought on the physical decline more than a training mistake. Dæhlie has responded by dropping out of several races, including the Norwegian National championships, in order to return to a comfortable training environment, and give his body a chance to recover. Because the drop-off occurred over a month before the Worlds, there is still good reason to believe he will regain top form and fight for gold in Trondheim. This is the supreme test of Dæhlie's personal sense of what his body needs in training and when. Meanwhile, another Norwegian athlete who has been at rock bottom this season is climbing back to the top. Thomas Alsgaard is back. There was no medical or physical explanation for his collapse at the beginning of the season (In one early season race he actually came to a stop on a hill). In his own words, his training had gone well. Repeated trips to the doctor failed to reveal anything substantive. Perhaps Thomas was also the victim of physical decline due to psychological pressures. He lost his father suddenly last Spring. His father had guided him as a trainer and as a friend for his whole carreer. You can't measure the impact of such a loss on a treadmill. The good news is that the tall smooth skier is climbing back on top. He recently dominated the Norwegian national championships (with Dæhlie absent), sending a message to those who had written him off as a threat this season. He says that he still needed excellent training over the final three weeks before Worlds to compete for a medal. Don't count him out. From my seat here in Norway, the race for Gold(s) is wide open! .