Crown Prince Haakon Meets the Norwegian Athlete Who Has Gone Viral as the 'Olympic Muffin Man'

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway made an unexpected stop at the 2024 Paris Olympics: at the cafeteria!

On Aug. 8, the Royal House of Norway posted photos of the royal heir, 51, meeting Norwegian athletes at the Olympic Games in France. He posed for a photo with swimmer Henrik Christiansen, who has become a viral TikTok star as the self-declared "Olympic muffin man."

"Do you know the muffin man?" they captioned the Instagram carousel, which opened with a photo of Crown Prince Haakon and Christiansen smiling together at a table as the athlete held up a chocolate muffin, the subject of his viral videos.

"Crown Prince Haakon is in place at the Paris Olympics and has visited the Norwegian delegation in the participant village 🇳🇴," the Royal House continued, per an English translation. "There are fantastic achievements being put down by the Norwegian athletes, said the Crown Prince after the visit."

Christiansen is a 27-year-old swimmer representing Team Norway at the Olympics for the third time and has lit up TikTok with his hilarious commentary on the chunky chocolate muffins served at the Olympic Village. The viral series began on July 25, the day before the opening ceremony, when he rated the molten chocolate muffins "insane" with a score out of "11/10" in a food review video of some of the fare served.

The saga snowballed from there and inspired many more lighthearted clips that have garnered millions of views, with Christiansen going so far as to joke that the muffins are "bae" in his most popular TikTok, viewed 11.5 million times.

Sodexo Live!, the company overseeing culinary operations and coordinating meals for the 15,000 athletes living in the Olympic Village, says they're expecting to serve 100,000 of the chocolate muffins throughout the Olympics and Paralympics, with about 2,000 eaten daily.

The Paris Olympics are serving as a hotspot for European royalty this summer, with the nearby host city providing them with a prime opportunity to show support for national athletes. Crown Prince Haakon first stepped out at the competition on Aug. 6, making the trip solo despite being scheduled to be joined by his wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

Earlier this week, Se og Hør reported that Crown Princess Mette Marit's son Marius Borg Høiby was arrested and detained for 30 hours on Aug. 4 after accusations that he "attacked" a woman at an apartment building in Oslo. The woman was reportedly hospitalized for a concussion, according to the Norwegian outlet.

Marius is Princess Mette-Marit's 27-year-old son from a previous relationship, and he does not have a title or working role within the Norwegian royal family.

Speaking for the first time about the reported arrest, Crown Prince Haakon told the press on Aug. 6, "It is a serious matter when the police are involved in the way they are, but at the same time, it is not right for me to go into the details of the case," according to the Daily Express.

Addressing his wife's absence from the Olympics, he said, "In our family, as in all families, it is sometimes important to be there. This time it was me who went while she stayed at home."