Already before Saturday's skiathlon, it became clear what this meant for the 28-year-old "trønderen". With tears in his eyes, Jan Thomas Jenssen, born in Hommelvik just outside the World Championship city of Trondheim, explained in an interview with Viaplay how he had already dreamed as a child of competing in a World Championship on home soil – and of taking a medal.
The skiathlon was the big chance, the discipline where he had been on the podium in both of the winter's World Cup races. But it didn't happen. And he couldn't have come much closer.
A tenth of a second
No matter what, it was a fourth place and not a third place. I'm standing here without a medal around my neck. It's crap, says Jan Thomas Jenssen.
His eyes are shiny despite having already explained his feelings in one interview after another. He knows he should be proud, but can't let go of the disappointment.
In a frenetic sprint finish, he fought with national team colleagues Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget and Harald Østberg Amundsen for the medals behind another Norwegian, the supreme winner Johannes Høsflot Klæbo.
Jenssen lost the medal fight by a tenth of a second margin.
"The world collapsed"
My dream was to take a medal. And I missed it by the smallest possible margin. It's incredibly sour that it becomes like this. It felt like the world collapsed. But in the end, I'm still proud.
I did everything I could. But there were three who were better than me today, I just have to accept that. I was stiff as a stick at the end and had nothing more to give.
Norwegian men's coach Eirik Myhr Nossum understands the immediate disappointment. At the same time, he is sure that Jan Thomas Jenssen will look back on the day with pride in the end.
Give him an hour and a half, and I'm sure he'll understand that this is a memory for life, says Nossum.
