Kristian Blummenfelt has cemented his place as one of the greatest triathletes of all time since his Tokyo Olympic gold medal winning performance in 2021, a feat he will be hoping to replicate next summer in Paris.

The 29 year old, who has won IRONMAN, IRONMAN 70.3, PTO Tour and WTCS titles since his victory in Japan, will go down in history as one of the most decorated triathletes of all time, regardless of how he performs next year in the French capital.

Despite that, Blummenfelt revealed in an interview with Super League Triathlon that he is still as driven as ever, as the Norwegian shared some valuable insight into his mentality and why the world of triathlon can expect even more success in the coming years from him.

“It’s important to really want to win deep down inside”

One of the most remarkable things about Blummenfelt is how quickly he moves on to the next challenge, the next opponent to be taken down and the next race to be won. Speaking on this topic, Blummenfelt shared that for him, joy comes from winning, no matter what the race is.

“I feel like it sounds strange, but for me it [Winning Olympic Gold] is like winning a European Cup as a junior, it’s part of a process and you race to win, tick it off and move to the next one.

“The joy of sprinting away from Gordon Benson and Marc Austin in 2012, the joy and the adrenaline rush you get from that, could be the same feeling or even better than winning a World title these days.” 

The biggest difference between winning a European Cup ten years ago and taking a World Championship title now, according to the Bergen native, is the amount of people around him, something that he doesn’t let impact his internal source of motivation.

“The biggest difference now I would say is that there are more people around me that care. Before, I sort of just raced for myself, but now it just means a lot more for sponsors and the rest of the team.

“However, I think the pressure that I put on myself is mainly from myself. Even though I have more people around, if I’m winning, I still race for myself and I think it’s important to really want the win deep down inside yourself, because it’s hard to get that from external motivation.”