Jessie Diggins

Jessie Diggins was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and grew up in Afton, Minnesota.[5] She has one sister, Mackenzie.[6] Diggins began skiing at age 4.[7] She showed prowess for skiing at age 11 when she started competing against older children.[7] Diggins graduated from Stillwater Area High School.[5]

Diggins won a gold medal with Kikkan Randall in the team sprint in the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Val di Fiemme.[2] Two years later she won the silver medal in the 10 kilometer free style race in the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 in Falun.[2]

Diggins was named to the U.S. team for the 2014 Winter Olympics. In her first event, the 15 kilometer skiathlon, she placed 8th (out of 61 competitors) with a time of 40:05.5.[8]

In the 2015/2016 World Cup, she placed 8th in the overall and sprint rankings and 9th in the distance ranking.[9]

At the 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland, Diggins took two medals: in the freestyle sprint, she won her quarter-final and semi-final heats on her way to taking the silver, ahead of team-mate Randall in third.[10] Subsequently, in the classic team sprint, Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen finished third, catching and passing the Swedish team in the closing stages of the race to take the bronze by 0.19 seconds. This made Diggins the first American to take four World Championship medals in cross-country skiing.[11]

Diggins finished third overall in the 2017–18 Tour de Ski, becoming the first American to finish on the podium in the overall classification, and beating her previous best of fifth overall in the previous edition. Her teammate Sadie Bjornsen finished ninth overall, also making it the first time that two Americans finished in the overall top ten.[12]

During the 2018 Winter Olympics she and Randall became the first American cross-country skiers to capture a gold medal by winning the women's team sprint at the Alpensia Cross-Country Centre in PyeongChang, South Korea.[13]

At the end of the games she was chosen as the flag bearer for the United States at the closing ceremony.[14]

Jessie Diggins won the 2021 Tour de Ski title in another historic first for US Cross country skiing.

Diggins is an ambassador for the non-profit organization Fast and Female, which works to inspire girls from ages 8–18 to be active and empowered in sports.[15][16] Diggins is also an ambassador for the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Protect Our Winters, or POW, whose aim is to affect systemic solutions to climate change through the outdoor sports community. Diggins travelled with POW to Capitol Hill in April 2018 to raise concerns over climate change.[17]

In 2019, Diggins became a spokesperson for the Emily Program, an organization in the United States that provides treatment for eating disorders. In several interviews and essays, she revealed her experience of seeking treatment for bulimia in 2010 at the organization while as a teenage athlete, with the aim of her story to improve self-acceptance and reduce stigma and secrecy around eating disorders.[18][19]

• Diggins, Jessie and Smith, Todd (2020). Brave Enough. ISBN 978-1517908195

• Jessie Diggins at the International Ski Federation
• Jessica Diggins at the International Olympic Committee
• Jessie Diggins at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• NBC Sports, 2018 Winter Olympics: Diggins and Randall win women's cross-country team sprint
• Interview with Jessie Diggins . International ski Federation, retrieved October 4, 2018