What's the highest VO2 max ever recorded?
About 97, in Norwegian cyclist Oskar Svendsen, published in a journal as 96.7. Triathlete Kristian Blummenfelt posted 101.1 on Instagram in early 2026, but no journal has checked it, and the test screen hinted he hadn’t reached his limit.
Records like this get passed around as fact, and the numbers drift with each telling. Before Svendsen, the unofficial record was cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie’s 96 from the 1990s. According to several scientists in Norway, as science writer Alex Hutchinson reported, it was a doubtful result that Dæhlie’s team leaked to psych out his rivals.
We’d count Svendsen’s 96.7 as the record, since it’s the one a journal has published. Hutchinson came to the same view in February 2026, writing that Svendsen holds the record unless Blummenfelt’s data shows up in a peer-reviewed journal.
The Blummenfelt screenshot
In late January 2026, an Instagram post showed a treadmill test screen with 101.1 ml/kg/min for Blummenfelt, the Norwegian triathlete. Hutchinson pointed out something odd on the same screen. The ratio of carbon dioxide breathed out to oxygen used was 0.93.
Labs use that ratio to check that a runner really hit their limit. The US reference chart counts a test as maximal at 1.0 or above, and other labs use 1.10 or 1.15. At 0.93, Blummenfelt may have stopped before his true max. Hutchinson called the result “bizarre” because it’s super high but seemingly should be even higher. Nobody outside his team knows what test protocol they used.
How far above the rest of us
| Who | VO2 max (ml/kg/min) |
|---|---|
| Oskar Svendsen, published record | 96.7 |
| Top 10 percent of US men in their 20s | 58.6 and up |
| Middle US man in his 20s | 46.5 |
| Middle US woman in her 40s | 25.7 |
| Middle US man in his 80s | 17.6 |
Svendsen’s number is about twice the middle for a man in his 20s and five and a half times the middle for a man in his 80s.
How a body gets there
In healthy people, VO2 max is mostly set by how much blood the heart can pump, and training raises it mainly by raising that pump’s top output. Elite endurance athletes have both big hearts and years of training on top of whatever they were born with. The number is also per kilogram, which favors light athletes. A lean cyclist and a heavier rower can move the same liters of oxygen a minute and get very different scores.
You don’t need anything close to 97 to rank well. For a man in his 40s, the top 10 percent starts at 50.8, and for a woman in her 40s at 37.8. Find your own rank in the tool below.
What your result means, and what to do next
- Low or below average. Most of the health gap sits in the first step up, so this is where training pays the most.
- Above average or high. Hold it as the years pass. Holding steady after 40 already counts as climbing.
- The next group up is a target for one training block, but people respond very differently, from almost nothing to a lot.
- Make sure the number is real. A watch can be several points off. Get your true VO2 max
- Start the two layers. Cardio most days at a pace where you can still talk, and one or two hard sessions a week. How to raise it
- Retest the same way in 8 to 12 weeks. Same test, same route or same watch. Believe a change of more than 2 to 4 points.
3 sources
- Hutchinson A, The VO2max record that (probably) wasn't, Sweat Science, February 3, 2026sweatscience.substack.com
- Kaminsky LA and others, Updated reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing (FRIEND), Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2022mayoclinicproceedings.org
- Bassett DR and Howley ET, Limiting factors for maximum oxygen uptake and determinants of endurance performance, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2000europepmc.org
