Caleb Olson of the U.S. comes to the 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail fresh off a win at the Western States 100 earlier this summer. In the following interview, Caleb talks about how he changed up his training after Western States, some of his adventures during the past six weeks in Europe, including two summits of Mont Blanc in two days, and how doing well on the world champs course will require all the skills that he aspires to have as a well-rounded runner.
For more on who’s racing, check out our in-depth men’s and women’s previews and follow our live race coverage on Saturday.
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Caleb Olson Pre-2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Eszter Horanyi with iRunFar here with Caleb Olson. We’re a few days before the Trail World Championships in Spain.
Caleb Olson: Yep.
iRunFar: How’s Spain treating you?
Olson: Spain’s awesome. It’s been fun. I’ve been out here for like ten days now, and it’s been amazing.
iRunFar: Last time we saw you, there was a sitting-down interview.
Olson: Mm hmm.
iRunFar: In the heat of Auburn, sweltering. Everyone was a little like, t-shirts and nothing else.
Olson: Yeah.
iRunFar: And now it’s cold. That was right after you won Western States 100.
Olson: Yeah.
iRunFar: What’s happened since then?
Olson: Was pretty out of it in that interview. A lot has happened since then. It’s always hard to recover from Western States. I think that is one of those races that, like, people know that it wrecks you, but like, it wrecks you so much more than any other race I ever do. It’s a big switch from Western States fitness over to like, you can see behind us, these kind of mountains are steep and rugged and hard, and it’s a lot of hiking and really uneven terrain. So it’s a big change up, but I’ve had a lot of fun being out in Europe the past few weeks. I’ve gotten in a lot of good training. I’ve been out here with my family, so hanging out with my baby and Morgan, and yeah, it’s been really fun. Yeah.
iRunFar: So when we talked to you last after Western States, you said that you were excited to get back up into the Wasatch to do some more hikey, verty training.
Olson: Yeah.
iRunFar: Like, how did that go?
Olson: It went great. Yeah. I did it. I think I kind of took full advantage of the time between when I was recovered from Western States before I came out to Europe. I got up on a lot of the Wasatch ridges that I had been really kind of itching to do during Western States training and hadn’t been able to get myself up there. Took some friends on new routes that were exciting and fun. And, yeah, just like packed full of action before we got out here to Europe. And then I feel like I’ve been out here so long now that I’m forgetting what I even did in the Wasatch.
iRunFar: That was a while ago.
Olson: Yeah. Like, six weeks ago. Yeah.
iRunFar: So you’ve been here for six weeks. You also got into some pretty cool stuff around here.
Olson: Mm hmm.
iRunFar: Like, what sort of stuff did you get into?
Olson: So I started in Chamonix, and I think kind of the highlight and probably coolest thing I got into out there was I did Mont Blanc, twice actually, like back-to-back days. I had some different friends that wanted to climb it, and so I took them up. Two different days, and that was perfect. We got amazing conditions. I think it’s such a cool perspective for someone who has done CCC multiple times and who wants to do UTMB to stand on top of Mont Blanc and be able to see the entire course sprawled out underneath you. It gives you a really cool perspective on the course and makes, something about seeing it from a bird’s eye view, just makes it, logically you really want to go run that loop. So I think that got me excited for maybe doing that next year.
iRunFar: Doing UTMB next year?
Olson: Yeah.
iRunFar: Is that the plan?
Olson: That’s the hope. That’s the plan. Yeah.
iRunFar: So what’s that like going from winning Western States, which is nontechnical to going to climb Mont Blanc? That’s a huge wheelhouse of skills that you have there. Is that how you think of yourself as a runner? As someone with a lot of different skills?
Olson: Yeah. It’s funny. I don’t think Mont Blanc is as hard as people might think it is. At least not the easy route that I pick. You can make it very hard, but if you get it in the right conditions on the route that is kind of the standard summer route, and especially going at kind of a fun conversational pace, it’s pretty doable. It’s definitely a very different thing from Western States, but I think, yeah. I like the scrambling. I like walking on glaciers. I know how to use the gear, and I really enjoy that kind of thing. And I want to be a well-rounded runner who doesn’t just run in a straight line for Western States, but can also go up and down challenging terrain, and Mont Blanc’s a good spot for that. This is a good spot for that.
iRunFar: How do you sell that to your coach? Hey. I want to go summit Mont Blanc twice in a row.
Olson: I don’t have a coach.
iRunFar: Oh, you don’t have a coach.
Olson: Easy sell.
iRunFar: Nice.
Olson: I just thought about it and did it. But yeah, I was coached through Western States, and then I have been doing my own thing, and having a lot of fun since then, and kind of going more off intuition and feel and seeing what seems right each day.
iRunFar: And a double Mont Blanc. Why not?
Olson: A double Mont Blanc felt right.
iRunFar: I love it. So you seem to like the technical stuff.
Olson: Mm hmm.
iRunFar: So this is probably something that you’re loving. The word on the street is this is a pretty technical course around here. How long have you been in Spain? Have you seen the whole course?
Olson: I’ve seen the whole course. I’ve been here, I think, about ten days. And yeah, seen every mile of the course, some of it multiple times. And I don’t remember if it was, I’ve done a lot of recceing the course with Jim [Walmsley] and Adam [Peterman]. And one of them said that this feels like the kind of route that you would plan with your friends if you were just looking for fun adventure on a Saturday. Less like a race course and more like a “How can we connect these passes and ridges and stuff in a fun, interesting way.” I think that was a good way to describe it, because it’s unlike any race course I’ve seen before. It’s definitely really challenging terrain. A lot of, it almost kind of feels off-trail, just walking up steep grassy fields to ridges, and I think it’ll be really interesting. I think it’s the kind of race and terrain that gets me excited and makes me think that, hopefully, I can use some of the skills that I’ve got on technical terrain.
iRunFar: So do you think it really plays to your strengths?
Olson: It plays to what I want my strengths to be. I haven’t really proven yet that I can do super well at a race like this, but it’s what I want to be good at. And so even if it doesn’t end up playing to my strengths, it will be a good learning experience, and help me do better at this sort of thing in the future, I think.
iRunFar: Have you done any other races that this is at all comparable to?
Olson: It’s maybe sort of like a much steeper version of Ultra Trail Cape Town.
iRunFar: Okay.
Olson: That’s maybe the most similar in terms of terrain that I can think of, but it’s just not quite as steep. Maybe the Innsbruck World’s Course in 2023 was a bit like this, but I would definitely say this is more technical and more sort of off-trail feeling. But Innsbruck was equally steep or steeper.
iRunFar: What was Innsbruck like for you?
Olson: It was such a cool experience to be on a World’s team out there. I never really had thought that I would get the opportunity to do something like that, so I loved that aspect of it. The actual race was really, really hard. I was underprepared, both in terms of training and execution on race day was just not good. I think I came in like 90th place. So, lots of room to improve on that.
iRunFar: And you’ve changed a lot of the runner since then. I’m assuming you feel better prepared going into this.
Olson: Yes. I don’t think I’ll have the same experience this time. I’ve come a long way in two years, and I think I’m a very different runner now.
iRunFar: And did you finish Innsbruck like, “I want to go back and do another World’s team?”
Olson: Totally. Yeah. I immediately thought, “Okay. This is a decision point. I need to either give up running competitively or double down and figure this out because I can’t do that again.” And yeah, I pretty quickly was like, if I ever get the chance to be on a World’s team again, I’m going to take it seriously, and I’m going to have a very different day.
iRunFar: What do you think it was about being on a World’s team that sparked that?
Olson: I think there’s something about, it kind of feels like the closest we can really get to the Olympics. Like, there’s something about wearing the same kit that you know all the USA Track and Field people are wearing. Like, this is the real kit. It’s, I don’t know. Something about that, and then the team aspect of knowing that you have teammates counting on you. You’re representing your country. I think it’s a really cool race that is maybe underappreciated. And starting to be appreciated a little bit more, but especially looking at the competition in the field this year. I think it’s more competitive than UTMB, CCC, and probably Western States. I think this is the most stacked field we’ve seen in an ultra this year. And I want it to be seen like that and get that kind of respect.
iRunFar: And does the team aspect, does that change how you’re going to approach the race? Do you feel like you’re racing more as an individual or as a team? Or how does that affect it?
Olson: Yeah. It does affect it a little bit. It’s made it more fun and, like, more friendly feeling. I mentioned that I’ve been scouting out sections of the course with Jim and Adam. Those are people I’ve competed against before, and I’ll be competing against them on Saturday. I want to beat them. They want to beat me, but we’re also all on a team, and it would be amazing if we all did well. And I think it helps to have that sort of friendly aspect that isn’t always there. Not that those people aren’t friendly, but I also think it makes you want to, like, the way that the scoring happens is the top three, it’s like the sum total time of the top three finishers for each country. So it makes you really, like, every second matters. It makes it so that even if you’re winning or even if you’re bonking, want to squeeze every minute out of yourself that you possibly can, because if your team ends up needing you as a scorer, you want to put them in as good of a place as possible. So I think that’s more motivating than normal.
iRunFar: Because did you race collegiately?
Olson: I didn’t.
iRunFar: So this is maybe the first time you’ve run as, like, part of a team.
Olson: I did high school cross country.
iRunFar: Okay.
Olson: So I got a little taste of it there. But, yeah, it’s not often that I get to race as a team.
iRunFar: Yeah. I think it’s a unique aspect of this.
Olson: Yeah.
iRunFar: Well, best of luck.
Olson: Thank you.
iRunFar: And we’ll see you out there.
Olson: Sounds good.
