Back to Olympic Valley, California, for the first time since 2011, when he won, Kilian Jornet comes to the 2025 Western States 100 knowing how much both he and the race have changed. In the following interview, Kilian talks about what brings him back to the race, how he’s able to balance all of the important things in his life while still racing at a high level, his thoughts on how the men’s field has changed, and how he thinks the race will play out on Saturday.
To learn more about who’s racing, check out our men’s and women’s previews before following our live race coverage on race day.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Kilian Jornet Pre-2025 Western States 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Kilian Jornet. It’s a couple days before the 2025 Western States 100. Kilian Jornet, here we find ourselves at Western States again.
Jornet: Yeah, it’s been some time but, yeah, super excited to be back here. Yeah.
iRunFar: The last time that you were in this part of the world was the 2011 Western States, 14 years ago. A lot has changed about you, about this race, about men’s ultrarunning in general. How does it feel to be back doing something that’s familiar yet different?
Jornet: Yeah, you say the sport has changed a lot and now, just this week, I remember 2010, ’11, there was nobody until 10 minutes before the start. The week before, the village was quiet and now it’s a lot of people, like runners, fans, and it’s great. The sport, it’s growing, and there’s more people passionate about that and going out to the trails, and that’s cool. And it’s also evolved in a way that, I think that we have more knowledge. We have more knowledge on how to train, how to prepare ourselves, how to manage hydration, nutrition, and strategy in the race. So probably we all are running faster, but I think just because the knowledge of the previous generations are, it’s just something that we got for free somehow.
iRunFar: Compounding interest.
Jornet: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
iRunFar: I want to ask you about this area. You first came to the Tahoe area in 2009 for maybe it was your first big sponsored endeavor, Kilian’s Quest.
Jornet: Yeah. It was the first year of Kilian’s Quest, and my first trip to the U.S., and the first long, long run.
iRunFar: Yeah, you came in, you ran a fastest known time on the Tahoe Rim Trail. You followed that up for the next two years with the Western States 100. There’s something like a magnetic draw to this corner of the world for you.
Jornet: It is. I think it’s, like all the Sierras, it’s a beautiful part of the world, and this contrast between the high mountains and the desert, I think it’s this contrast that is magnetic. It attracts us and the wilderness, I think, especially in this part with so much public lands to access. So much more wilderness, and that’s something that it’s very appealing to all the people that love mountains and love the outdoors.
iRunFar: You have come back to the U.S. a bunch of times since you last ran Western States. You’ve run Hardrock [100], Pikes Peak [Ascent and Marathon], Mount Marathon. I don’t know if I’m missing anything in there.
Jornet: Yeah, just some adventure, mostly in Colorado, I think. Just adventures in the mountains but, yeah, it’s been some time since being here in California.
iRunFar: Yeah. So 14 years since your last Western States. My natural question is, why now, why here, why this specifically?
Jornet: Yeah. I think it was many different things that came together. One, it was motivation, and that last year I was doing mostly short distance and felt competitive there. And then I did a long project in the Alps, and then it was more like, Okay, what to do in competition next year. Well, I wanted to do long distance this year, and then there are not many races of ultra distance that have a big density of elite athletes. And among them, Western is probably the one that it fits me the least. And it was the challenge of thinking, Okay, it’s something that I know is more challenging for me, that I will need to train differently.
But, yeah, and I think that was the first thing, and last year especially, it was many of the friends from Romsdal, like Ida [Nilsson], and Petter [Engdahl], and Jon [Albon] that came here. So it felt like I also had more of it. Yeah, it can be interesting to go back there to experience that for the first time. And for me it was, I think mostly the challenge of competitiveness and something that I’m not used to.
iRunFar: The Kilian Jornet that was here in 2010 and 2011 is a very different Kilian Jornet than now. You are a family man. You have a big, small, very busy family. You help lead several businesses. How do you interplay being at the top of the sport and multiple disciplines at this point, you can win Sierre-Zinal and be competing for the win here at Western States this week. Two very different animals. How do you fit, maybe psychologically and logistically, staying at the top of the sport with the rest of life?
Jornet: Well, I would say it’s about prioritizing things that matter. And that means that, yeah, for me, family is the most important. So I don’t travel much. I will do one or two travels from every year. So that means that I’m spending most of the time home with the family and being present there. That’s also convenient because then I am able to train more and to train better because it’s… I don’t need to do many other things that involves traveling. And then I want to perform well, so I put effort on that. That’s my second priority. And then it’s, with the time that allows me, I have time for the foundation and for the company, for Nnormal. But, yeah, that means that I’m doing less things probably outside of that. I’m doing much less when it comes to press, or when it comes to other solicitations or opportunities.
iRunFar: Social stuff, and-
Jornet: Yeah, I can’t do everything and if I want to be living the present, and to be present when I’m playing with my kids, and if I want to be present when I’m training, then I cannot be thinking of, Oh, I have a full schedule of things or calls this afternoon, or just now I need to stop doing that because I’m late for another thing. No, I want to prioritize what I value and then go from there. And I think that’s also making me a better athlete on managing the stress of all these things, just to be able to live presently what I’m doing at the moment.
iRunFar: I wonder a little bit about the psychology of all that going on in the background, like when you’re running really hard finishing Sierre-Zinal, maybe in the hardest parts of this race on Saturday, does all that background stuff creep into your mind? Are you able to be in the present racing like you are when you’re at home and being in the present with your family?
Jornet: Yeah, and I think racing, it’s very easy to put yourself in that bubble, and I think with experience too, you get to know that, yeah, it’s a race and it will be hard at some point. But, yeah, I know how hard it could be and it’s something that I have experience, so I know that it’s nothing that hard, especially I think if you compare it to other projects, you can really push the limits much further.
iRunFar: When you’ve gone through the whole Alps, this is simple.
Jornet: Yeah, like in the race you got to… Yeah, I can suffer but, yeah, I will be alive, 99.99% at the end of the day. You are glad of that. And then I know that it’s some good days and some bad days, and that’s part of it. It’s not to take it too seriously, just to try to push as hard as I can and to try to use all the tools. But I think also, being more relaxed and knowing that also makes me race better because I think many times, especially when you are young, you have the pressure to do it well, and you feel that it’s very, very important, and that it’s the whole world. And then sometimes you make mistakes, like tactic mistakes or things like that, that probably with experience we do a bit less.
iRunFar: I imagine that your training has changed. The more youthful Kilian Jornet did big days, just whatever came across your plate that looked good in the mountains. And now you’ve put out some great stuff about your training, preparing for this, where you are looking into the mountains while on your treadmill, on your bike, in a hot room. The specificity of your training is a lot different now.
Jornet: Yeah, it is, and especially, I think, first because as I’m getting older, the recovery is not the same. So I need to focus more on what is the most important and what’s the load I can put to recover well. And then also, I’m doing less races or projects. When I was racing here before, 2010, 2011, I was doing I think between winter and summer, 45 to 55 races per year. So it was a lot. So the training was basically just to go from race to race, and then just do nice mountain days in between.
While now, I will have a month of preparation before a goal, and that means that I’m training more hours, I’m doing much more hours than before, but because I’m racing less. And then I can prioritize more. Like now, since the last three months, I have been training mostly for Western. So that means doing training inside in the heat and flat days, but I know that after that I will be doing mountain days for the next month. So it’s more to try to fit time for everything.
iRunFar: The last time that you were here, the time that you won in would be about a tenth-place time in last year’s race.
Jornet: Yeah. Yeah. Not even podium for the women, I think.
iRunFar: Maybe not even a podium for the women.
Jornet: Yeah.
iRunFar: Things have changed a lot. The race has sped up, but you are a fan of the sport and I know that you followed the progress of this race throughout the years. How do you see the men’s race going this year?
Jornet: Yeah, I think it’s going faster, and as I mentioned before, it’s like first year here we didn’t bring water with us. We were just drinking in the stations. And I was thinking like, Yeah, we need to take one gel every second hour. We didn’t think about cooling. It was, yeah, I just get in the river sometimes. Today we know much more about that, so we are able to run faster and the density’s much, much bigger. So that’s also pushing athletes to run faster during the race. So I think this Saturday, it’s probably 10, 15 guys that can win the race, and that’s exciting because it means that some will blow up, and some will have an amazing day, and we don’t know who is going to be there, but I think we will all push together to have good times. I think the top 10 will run very, very fast.
iRunFar: You’re a close study of the sport and of the race. I’m sure you’ve looked at the splits and you know also that the temperature is in the average range for Western States. I think the potential with the competition and the weather is for quite fast times. How do you see the speed of the race going?
Jornet: Well, I think it will go out fast because especially the first hours, it will be not warm. And then I think it will be a game of who can keep pushing, especially I think it will be very, very warm. It looks like it’ll be, as you mentioned, above average. And that means that we really need to manage pace and cooling because it’s going to be fast, but at the same time, then it’s very easy to really blow up. Yeah, we need to, I think the stronger, but also the smartest will win.
iRunFar: Best of luck to you in your third Western States, and we look forward to watching you go from here in Olympic Valley all the way to Auburn.
Jornet: Thank you very much, and best of the luck for all the runners out there.
iRunFar: I have a bonus question for you.
Jornet: Yeah.
iRunFar: So, you made waves in 2010 here with a fashion statement like America had never seen.
Jornet: Yeah.
iRunFar: America’s still talking about that outfit.
Jornet: Spandex. Yeah, spandex is not back.
iRunFar: Is there going to be a fashion statement on Saturday?
Jornet: Not that strong, I would say. Yeah, no. Yeah, that was the highlight of a career. Yeah.
iRunFar: That was the highlight of your career?
Jornet: Yeah.
iRunFar: Your greatest fashion standard.
Jornet: Yeah. Yeah.
iRunFar: Amazing, Kilian.
