By Megan Armitage
Andrew Musgrave hopes that his home away from home advantage can catapult him to a maiden world championship podium in Norway.
The 34-year-old cross-country skier has set himself up perfectly for the pinnacle of the 2025 cross-country calendar in Norway, after clinching a podium finish and several top 20 performances this season.
Cross-country skiing is not just a sport in Norway, it's a way of life, and thousands are set to flock to the World Championships in Trondheim from the 26th of February.
And for Musgrave, who now lives in Trondheim, it is basically a home competition, skiing the competition tracks every day as part of his training.
"For cross-country skiers, this year is massive," he said.
"Having a Worlds in Norway is huge. Cross-country is one of the biggest sports in the country and there will be hundreds of thousands of people watching so it really will be a highlight of the decade.
"I know the tracks like the back of my hand which definitely helps. We had the test event for worlds as a World Cup last season and I was on the podium then, so it really gave me a confidence boost."
Musgrave clinched his fifth career World Cup podium with bronze in stage three of the Tour de Ski World Cup in December 2024.
The Scot finished the 20km interval start freestyle in 44:33.7s, gracing the podium for the first time in over a year.
After a difficult start to the season which saw him trailing at the bottom of the standings, it was a brilliant return to form.
"I knew when I looked at the Tour programme before the races that that stage would suit me well as it was a longer stage with a long climb but not too steep," he said.
"I felt going into the Tour that I was on really good form, so going into the race I felt really good.
"Things came together and I was back on the podium which was very nice as it's been a while."
The World Championships may be at the forefront of Musgrave's mind right now, but the quickly approaching time scale of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics cannot be ignored.
Musgrave can reach his fifth Olympics next season, having first competed as a sprightly teenager at Vancouver 2010.
His best-ever finish came with seventh place in the men's 30km skiathlon at PyeongChang 2018 and now on the more experienced side of his career, Musgrave is chasing the elusive Olympic medal that has evaded him for so long.
"As a British athlete, the Olympics is by far the biggest thing we ever do," he said.
"The last couple of Games have been in places where cross-country isn't the biggest of sports so going to Italy is going to be an awesome event.
"I'm confident I'm going to be there, and I feel like I'm going there as a medal candidate.
"In my first couple, I was young and still progressing as an athlete, while now I might be getting to the tail end of my career, but I feel I'm better than I've ever been."
Through his success on the snow, Musgrave is keen to propel the sport he loves into the British spotlight, whether that's through medals or sharing his own unique training routines.
In fact, one of Musgrave's top training techniques doesn't include snow at all, with the four-time Olympian taking to the road on roller skis which are a much more readily available cross-country skiing option for Brits that don't have access to regular snow.
"We want to show that you can cross-country ski in Britain," he said.
"There are cross-country ski clubs in Scotland, but you don't have to ski on snow. We do a lot of our summer training on roller skis and it's an amazing form of training and fun.
"There are roller ski clubs all over the country, I've trained with the one in London a couple of times and skied down The Mall.
"But the best way to get people interested in cross-country skiing is for us to win a medal at the Olympics," he said,
"That's when we have the most media attention to that's our priority number one."
