No doubt -- when did I say he was? Just providing context that he didn't come out of nowhere. He wasn't good enough to chase Olympic swimming so he got into triathlon.
I’m 45 and a cyclist. I averaged 25 hours a week last year without drugs. My VO2 Max is a measly 72-73 in comparison, but I have much less body fat than he does. I’m highly suspicious of those figures as his maximal capacity regardless of weight would have to be crazy. The other thing is EFFICIENCY. VO2 Max by itself predicts nothing. Efficiency can vary up to 20% between elite athletes. He likely is in efficient at close to that max effort over time in comparison to others, even though he’s winning.
Blummenfelt’s maximal capacity is crazy at 7.7 litre oxygen consumption per minute.
There is no reason to doubt his team’s lab measurements.
The reason for doubt is that part of absolute V02 max is a function of size. It is hard to believe a guy who is 5'8" could fit a motor like that into his body. Usually if you see a guy who is 7 liters in absolute V02 max it is an oarsman or a XC skier/ speed skater who is tall and relatively large . Big enough to have a heart and lungs to process and distribute that much oxygen and a large muscle mass to extract it.
Finally, VO2 max testing varies somewhat by the apparatus. You can get higher numbers off of a rowing test than you can running or cycling for the most part.
1 week before Kona 2022 his workout was 2.5 hours on the bike + 40k run @ 6-flat (Ironman race pace). 8 days before was 5k open water swim + 105 mile bike w./ bouts @ Ironman race pace. All done in Kona so high heat/humidity. Just refuting the idea that his training is mostly a ton of easy volume. Arguing that, yes there's a lot of easy volume, but also a ton of threshold work (dialed into LT1/LT2 by testing) & a ton of work @ race pace for goal distance.