Jessie Diggins competes in the women’s 30-kilometer freestyle cross-country skiing event at the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 20, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.
Alessandra Tarantino / AP
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Alessandra Tarantino / AP
Jessie Diggins competes in the women’s 30-kilometer freestyle cross-country skiing event at the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 20, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.
Alessandra Tarantino / AP
Jessie Diggins made history on multiple fronts Sunday when she won a silver medal in the women’s 30km freestyle start in Beijing. Not only did she become the first non-European athlete to take home a medal in the event, she is currently the only American to bring home multiple cross-country medals from the same Olympics – and she He barely recovered from food poisoning.
Diggins’ second place on Sunday marked her third Olympic medal. Taking home a bronze medal in the sprint final nearly two weeks ago and a gold in the 2018 team freestyle sprint, the 30-year-old Minnesota athlete has a medal in every color , making her become winning cross-country skier in US Olympic history.
Her podium finish was made even more impressive when news broke that Diggins had food poisoning leading up to the race.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my entire life, especially because I had food poisoning 30 hours ago, that’s why I thought I was going to die at the bar.” destination,” Diggins said.
Number finished behind Norway’s gold medal winner, Johaug Therese, and 50 seconds ahead of Finland’s Niskanen Kerttu. She climbed to second place about a third of the way through the race and held on to her spot.
She endured the frigid temperatures and high winds for 30 kilometers, although her legs started to cramp midway through, a Team USA released the news that said. When she finally crossed the finish line, exhausted and out of breath, she collapsed.
“It was possibly the best race of my life, I’m not going to lie,” Diggins said. “It was also possibly the hardest race of my whole life.”
Her silver medal brought Team USA’s total for the games to 25. The United States hadn’t had a particularly good record in cross-country skiing before Diggins’ arrival. Until Diggins and her teammate, Kikkan Randall, won a gold medal in the team sprint in 2018, the last cross country medal Team USA brought home was in 1976, when Bill Koch get silver in 30k.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster ride, but I’m glad we made it to the end,” Diggins said. “To have medals in the sprint and 30K is a fundamental belief for me. I’ve been trying to be a good all-around athlete all my life, so this is really cool.”
