Karsten Warholm: A Viking word record holder who likes to unwind with Lego projects

Karsten Warholm is a champion on the track, but he is also comfortable in a craft room and a true Lego fan since his childhood days. During the coronavirus pandemic, he spent hours immersed in the world of Lego projects and relaxed while building Hogwarts and other architectural wonders. Brick by brick, no time limits, no opponents. A Karsten Warholm Lego figurine would probably wear a Viking helmet, bright Puma spikes, and a rolled-down speed suit that reveals a sixpack. And the figurine’s chest would probably sport two glaring red handprints, the signature feature of a warrior about to attack.

Each race a battle

To get ready and into competition mode, Karsten Warholm brings his inner Thor to life. The usually peaceable Norwegian forcefully slaps his face and chest with an open hand. He seems to channel a wild Viking, a berserker, one of those Nordic warriors, who according to the saga, fought in a trance-like state and felt no pain.

Nobody tackles the first ten hurdles as mercilessly. Nobody burns as fiercely in lactate fire when entering the home straight as the three-time world champion (2017, 2019, 2023) and two-time Wanda Diamond league champion at Weltklasse Zürich 2019 and 2021. Step by step, hurdle by hurdle, he gets closer to that state of trance that the “killer distance” turns hunters of records and Diamond Trophies into prey.

Pushing human limits

Memories of Karsten Warholm’s performance in the final in front of the Letzigrund Stadium crowd six years ago are still very much alive. Not only did the 23-year-old star win the first of two diamonds. He also smashed the 47-second barrier as the first European athlete, clocking 46.92, which represented the second fastest result at the time. The look on his face, somewhere between puzzled and simply ecstatic, when he crossed the finish line to the sound of surging cheers remains unforgettable.

Warholm looked even more incredulously into the camera in 2021, when the Omega timekeeping device stopped at 45.94 seconds in the Olympic stadium in Tokyo, showing a result that was almost eight tenths of a second faster than the five-week-old world record (47.70) had been. The images showing Warholm – open-mouthed, his hands clutching his head – went around the world. What a fabulous, unreal record! To this day, Karsten Warholm is the only human on the planet to have run the 400m hurdles in less than 46 seconds.

An (un)likely athlete-coach team

Ever since that moment, the Olympic champion and world record holder has been one of the most popular sports personalities in his home country and beyond. An important element in this success story is his coach Leif Olav Alnes, 68 years old, a biomechanist, mastermind, and father figure. He managed to turn the former economics student and world U18 champion in the octathlon into the fastest 400m hurdler, without neglecting the human component of such a career.

The two are nearly 40 years apart in age, but they are on the same wavelength. And they form an unconventional athlete-coach team. Ever since Warholm gifted his mentor a smartphone after Rio 2016, the coach embraced the digital age. Today, “coach Leif” handles a tablet and his AirPods as if he had never worked with anything else.

The relationship of the duo goes beyond athletics, however. After tough training sessions, they relax together in a pool or jacuzzi, they diet together if need be, and they create social media challenges that go viral. A topless hurdle sprint on a frozen lake in Norway, for instance, where, conveniently, they can go ice fishing and/or ice bathing afterwards. “A young soul lives in coach Leif’s body, and in my case, it is the other way around. So, we fit perfectly,” says Karsten when describing their bond.

Maximum penalty at Weltklasse Zürich

It is a well-known fact in the athletics community that Warholm and Alnes not only work hard and train smartly. They also frequently pull each other’s leg, much to the amusement of those around them. Warholm loves to make fun about his coach’s fitness levels, for instance. Alnes knows how to answer in style. Last year, he showed up for the Zurich 100m showdown between Karsten and Mondo Duplantis, wearing a skintight superhero costume that read “Fat by choice”. A dig at himself, delivered with self-irony and the knowledge that humour is sometimes the best workout routine.

His athlete may have been fit, but not “fast” enough in the duel with Swedish pole vault record holder Mondo Duplantis. Warholm lost the bet – and paid the debt. On the following evening, the Norwegian promptly returned to Letzigrund Stadium, wearing a blue-and-yellow Swedish uniform for his appearance. It was a “maximum penalty” and not a moment he was proud of, as he publicly admitted. The Zurich crowd, of course, loved him for it.

A fair sportsman

You must give it to this Viking: Despite being ambitious, despite being wild about winning his races, he is a true sportsman, both on and off the track. The 300m h and 400m h world record holder truly hates being defeated – as he was by Rai Benjamin in Stockholm recently. Still, he never shies away from a challenge. Even if he cannot be his best self, if he is not in the form of his life, he faces his opponents, congratulates them if the defeat him, and stays fair through it all.

Weltklasse Zürich knows and appreciates these aspects of Karsten Warholm. The crowd favourite has competed five times in his favourite event so far. He won twice and placed second three times. His mission this year might be to spruce up the statistic before heading to Tokyo for the world championships.