Jessica Diggins (born August 26, 1991) is an American cross-country skier. She is the most accomplished cross-country skier from the United States in the sport's history having won two World Cup overall titles, three Olympic medals, six World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships. Diggins has used her status as a famous athlete to advance advocacy related to climate change and eating disorders.[2][3]
Diggins has also won six medals, including two golds, at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, from 2013 to 2023. She was the first American to win an individual event gold medal by winning the 10 km freestyle in 2023. Diggins has competed in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup since 2011. In 2021, Diggins won the women's overall title for the 2020–21 FIS Cross-Country World Cup, becoming the first American woman to win a season title and the first American to win one since Bill Koch in 1982.[6] She again won the overall title for the 2023–24 FIS Cross-Country World Cup.[7]
Diggins competed for the Stillwater Area High School, cross-country ski team. In 2008, Diggins was the top-ranked girls' individual cross-country skier in the Minnesotahigh school rankings.[11] She won the Korteloppet races in 2008 and 2009 as part of the American Birkebeiner festival in Wisconsin while she was still in high school.[12] She fell out of the Minnesota high school rankings in 2009 when she competed and won the United States Junior National Sprint title on March 9 of that year.[13] She was added to the United States World Junior Cross-Country Ski Team in 2010.[14]
Diggins earned an academic scholarship to Northern Michigan University but deferred enrollment to race with the Central Cross-Country Elite team for one year. She decided to race professionally rather than attend college. She was named to the United States Ski Team in 2011[15] and competed at her first World Championships that year.[5]
Diggins won the silver medal in the 10-kilometer freestyle race in the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun.[5] In the 2015–2016 World Cup, she placed 8th in the overall and sprint rankings and 9th in the distance ranking.[17]
At the 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland, Diggins took two medals: in the freestyle sprint, she won her quarterfinal and semifinal heats on her way to taking the silver, ahead of teammate Randall in third.[18] 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 win four World Championship medals in cross-country skiing.[19]
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.[20] Diggins finished second overall in the World Cup 2017–2018 season standings.[6]
At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Diggins 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 the final sprint, Diggins passed the last two individual sprint classical gold medalists – Sochi gold medalist Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway before the last turn and then Pyeongchang gold medalist Stina Nilsson of Sweden on the last straightaway. Theirs was not only the United States' first ever cross-country skiing gold medal but also the first American cross-country skiing medal since Bill Koch won silver in the men's 30 km in 1976.[21] Steve Schlanger and Chad Salmela called the end of the race for NBC:[22][23]
Salmela: As they come into the stadium, Diggins trying to get in on the outside! Schlanger: Jessie Diggins with two fifth-place finishes, one-sixth, so close for the U.S. on so many occasions, now moving up on the outside into second place! Salmela: They're all completely gassed! They've given it everything on the Klaebo-bakken! Stina Nilsson leading Jessie Diggins into the final turn – can Diggins answer?! Schlanger: As the roars rattle around the cross-country stadium in Pyeongchang, Sweden, the U.S. and Norway coming to the line! Salmela:Here comes Diggins! Here comes Diggins! Schlanger: On the outside! Diggins making the play around Sweden! Salmela:Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Gold! Schlanger: Jessie Diggins to the line! And it is Jessie Diggins delivering a landmark moment that will be etched in U.S. Olympic history! The first-ever cross-country gold medal for the U.S.! Salmela: It's a gold medal for the United States! It's not just a medal; it's the gold!
Diggins competed in all six women's cross-country skiing events at the Olympics and finished in the top 10 in all of them. At the end of the games, she was the flag bearer for the United States in the closing ceremony.[24]
Diggins won the 2021 Tour de Ski, a first for an American. She placed atop the overall World Cup 2020–2021 season standings, claiming the biggest annual prize in cross-country skiing. Diggins' victory put her with Koch, who won the men's title in 1982, to be the only Americans to win overall season titles for a World Cup cross-country ski circuit.[6]
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Diggins won bronze in the women's sprint to become the first American to win an individual Olympic medal in a cross-country sprint.[25] She went on to win silver in the women's 30 kilometer freestyle, earning the U.S.' last medal on the last day of the Olympics.[26] She was the first non-European to win a medal in the event.[27] Diggins left Beijing as the most decorated American cross-country skier of all time.[28] For the second straight Olympics, she finished in the top 10 in all six women's cross-country skiing events.
In December 2022, Diggins broke the American record for World Cup cross-country ski wins with her fourteenth such win.[29]
At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2023 in Slovenia, Diggins and teammate Julie Kern won bronze in the team sprint. Two days later, Diggins won gold in the 10 km freestyle, which was the first top medal for an American in an individual event at any cross-country skiing world championship.[30]
Diggins posted the most successful season ever for an American skier during the 2023–24 FIS Cross-Country World Cup.[7] She won the 2023–24 Tour de Ski, her second victory in the competition. While on break from the World Cup ski tour mid season, Diggins competed in the American Birkebeiner in Wisconsin, and won the 50 km freestyle race on February 24, 2024.[12] For 2024, Diggins was awarded the Holmenkollen Medal, the highest Norwegian honor in skiing—Diggins was the first American to ever receive the distinction.[31][32] For the 2023–24 World Cup season, Diggins claimed both the overall individual title—her second title after winning it in 2021—and the distance title.[7] She set a United States' records with six victories and 12 podium finishes for the season.[33]
Diggins married Wade Poplawski in 2022. Poplawski, a native of Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada, is a former minor league hockey player for the Rapid City Rush. The couple lives in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. Diggins trains in Vermont.[2][34]
After winning an Olympic gold medal, Diggins used her clout to successfully lobby for the United States to host a World Cup cross-country skiing event, culminating in the 2024 Stifel Loppet Cup held in Minneapolis.[35]
Social activism
Diggins, wearing an Emily Program logo on her hat, 2019
Diggins is an ambassador for the non-profit organization Fast and Female, which inspires girls ages 8–18 to be active and empowered in sports.[36][37] Diggins is also an ambassador for the non-profit organization Protect Our Winters (POW), whose aim is to effect systemic solutions to climate change through the outdoor sports community. Diggins traveled with POW to Capitol Hill in April 2018 to raise concerns over climate change.[3]
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 at the organization in 2010, with the aim of using her story to help improve self-acceptance and reduce stigma and secrecy around eating disorders for others.[38][39] In 2020, Diggins wrote an autobiography, Brave Enough, about her athletic accomplishments and personal struggles with bulimia as a teenager.[40] After 12 years in recovery, Diggins said in media interviews that she had a relapse in 2023 ahead of the cross-country ski season.[2][33]
Bibliography
Diggins, Jessie and Smith, Todd (2020). Brave Enough. ISBN978-1517908195
