Jessie Diggins celebrated profitable the ladies’s 20km mass begin on the FIS World Cup Ski Competition in Falun, Sweden on Sunday. Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency/AFP through Getty Images Hide caption
toggle caption Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency/AFP through Getty Images
Jessie Diggins celebrated profitable the ladies’s 20km mass begin on the FIS World Cup Ski Competition in Falun, Sweden on Sunday.
Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency/AFP through Getty Images
The most dominant cross-country ski racer in American historical past, male or feminine, has performed it once more.
Competing in Falun, Sweden, on Sunday, 32-year-old Jesse Diggins received his second World Cup title in a sport lengthy dominated by Europeans.
“My solely purpose was to have as a lot enjoyable as doable,” Diggins stated in an announcement launched by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team after the win. “I did it as a result of I wished to skate a courageous race and put my coronary heart and soul into it.”
Diggins, whose hometown is Afton, Minnesota, and who usually trains in Vermont, received her first Olympic gold medal for South Korea in 2018.
She has been a pressure to be reckoned with ever since. She made historical past in 2021 as the primary American girl to win the World Cup general title, generally known as the Crystal Globe.
He received a silver and bronze medal on the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
She will now compete in a sequence of races beginning in November 2023, profitable her second World Cup title. She capped off a dominant season together with her victory in Sunday’s 20km freestyle race.
Cross-country snowboarding combines explosive energy, approach, and endurance.
In current years, Diggins, like different athletes, has spoken publicly concerning the emotional challenges of competing, together with his personal struggles with consuming issues.
Diggins stated earlier than this yr’s season that his signs returned after a 12-year restoration interval.
“It hasn’t been straightforward, with many ups and downs,” Diggins stated in an announcement Sunday. “It’s been a tricky yr, which is why it is so particular that we did it collectively,” she stated of her crew.
Diggins is probably the most profitable American athlete to compete in a sport the place European athletes have a big benefit. In Europe, particularly within the Nordic international locations, cross-country snowboarding is rather more widespread and professionally profitable.
Unlike most different top-level American cross-country ski racers, Diggins has managed to maintain profitable. After her newest win, she credited her coaches and teammates for her accomplishments.
“I’m actually happy with the best way the season ended, however I’m much more happy with the crew for being there for me,” she stated.