No Longer the “Other Norwegian,” Can Casper Stornes Overcome the Pressures of His Nice Win to Master Marbella?

Casper Stornes at the Marbella press conference. Photos: Kevin Mackinnon

Now that every triathlete on the planet knows who Casper Stornes is, now that the Norwegian Hype Train is in Marbella, the IRONMAN World Champion can’t avoid the attention. No longer “the other Norwegian,” Stornes has eyes on him, questions to answer from eager media, and a “target on his back” come race day. But Marbella isn’t Nice. A 70.3 isn’t a 140.6. And the start list is a different breed of athlete. 

The Business of After Nice

After Nice, life got very busy for Stornes with all the commitments and business that follows winning a world championship title. Business followed him home to Norway, where Marbella was the furthest thing from his mind.  

 “At home, I didn’t get much time to sleep and focus on training,” he says. “The first two and half weeks after Nice, I didn’t have one power nap midday since there were so many things happening. When I took the first power nap since Nice, I was like, this is not good at all. When I was sleeping at night, I wasn’t waking up before my alarm, so my body has been taking the opportunity to sleep. But now I feel like I’m on top of it and I’m good.”

“Now I can have my power naps midday,” he adds with a laugh. 

Lack of sleep was made up for by his rising stock on the sponsorship market. Leveraging his performance, his manager was hustling for new opportunities and fielding offers. 

“On the sponsor side, [life] is completely different to before Nice – it changed a little bit after Frankfurt, but Nice was…” he pauses with a big exhale, “an insane difference.”

Stornes says he will stay with his sponsor OMNi-BiOTiC, that he has recently signed with THEMAGIC5 custom goggles, but, with a twinkle in his eye, says he can’t talk about anything else. 

Business might be booming but, he assures, “Casper, in general, is the same.”

“The hunger, the want to be better — it’s the same,” he says. “But, I must be honest, it’s taken a lot mentally after Nice. I went so hard into that competition, not like the race would define my career, but that it could definitely change it. If I had a bad race, I knew there would be an opportunity next year in Kona; but, if I won, it would change my life completely in terms of sponsors and opportunities. So, things have changed, but the motivation and me, in general, hasn’t changed.”

Iden, Stornes and Blummenfelt celebrate on the podium in Nice.

Tailored Taper 

After spending some time at home, Stornes went up to altitude in Sierra Nevada, Spain along with his training partners, Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden. Just a few hours from Marbella, the trio were able to travel down to train on the course a few times but, more importantly, Stornes was able to get back into his normal routine, focus on training and prepare for Marbella.

He talks about his normal schedule, what a rest week looks like (not so restful to most of us with a 4.5 to 5 km swim to kick off a rest day), how the three did a race pace effort on the whole bike course one weekend, and how he has been trying different taper protocols this season.

Coming into Marbella, like most athletes, he will significantly drop his training volume, but he still keeps one bigger day. 

“On Wednesday I have a long bike since I feel it’s good, especially when you take the volume, to have at least one long session,” he says. “I’ll go through the course, around 3 to 3.5 hours in the legs, then a one hour run and a one hour swim so the body is not being sluggish. I feel like if you taper too much, the body feels shaky or a bit weird.”

But the Norwegian, contrary to popular myth, doesn’t always believe that more is more. 

 ”The only special thing I do before a competition is that I don’t swim the day before,” he says. “The day before there is so much else happening with checking in bikes and you also have to squeeze in some training, you need to pack your stuff, and you are nervous. This season, I’ve tried to figure out how to be as fresh as possible for race day. So I experimented a bit–okay, should I try to skip swimming? I did that and I felt amazing on the swim.” 

“In general, I feel like swimming takes more energy than bike and run,” he continues. “It’s also good to check your bike the day before that everything is working and then I have a short easy run and just chill the rest of the day.”

Marbella Mindset 

After winning in Nice, Stornes might have put in the physical training to perform at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, but when he mentions he is “empty” it begs many questions. As Blummenfelt shared with Slowtwitch, mental energy at this point in the season can make or break a race — and that’s something Stornes knows too. 

“Of course, I think I can win but I’m also realistic,” he admits, acknowledging his mental energy deficit. “I achieved what the biggest goal was this year and, of course it would be the other way around if I didn’t perform in Nice, it would be way easier to be motivated for Marbella because I feel like I’d have something unfinished. But when you win on the biggest stage and in the biggest race this year …”

“Kristian is really hungry, Jelle [Geens] wants to defend his title from last year, and you also have a lot of other good athletes like Jonas [Schomberg],” he continues. “I want to perform in Marbella, but I know it’s going to be really hard.”

Stornes, with the world title to his name to prove it, isn’t afraid of racing hard. In the press conference, he noted a winning run split would look like a 1:06, a split he already ran way back in 2021 when he won 70.3 Nice and nearly achieved earlier this year with a 1:07:17 for second place at 70.3 Pays d’Aix (where Blummenfelt ran 5 seconds faster to claim the win). 

He also commented on the difficulty of the bike course, saying it would “take a lot of the legs,” so athletes “need to play it smart.” But, as his style of competing has demonstrated throughout the year, playing it smart is a card he always seems to hold in his hand. And, while the world champion admits his mental energy is low, that shouldn’t be confused with his champion’s mindset. 

“It’s going to be really hard,” he says. “If I get a podium, I’m very happy and I’ve pulled something out of the bag that I didn’t think I could pull out of the bag.”

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