Jessie Diggins

Jessica Diggins 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 three World Cup overall titles, three Olympic medals, seven 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.
Diggins and teammate Kikkan Randall won the United States' first-ever cross-country skiing gold medals with a team sprint victory at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Diggins won the silver medal in the 30 kilometer freestyle and the bronze medal in the individual sprint, making her the most decorated American cross-country skier of all time.
Diggins has also won seven medals, including two golds, at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, from 2013 to 2025. 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, she 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. Diggins won FIS Cross-Country World Cup overall titles in the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons.

Early life

Jessica "Jessie" Diggins was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in Afton, Minnesota. She has one sister, Mackenzie. Diggins began skiing at age four. She showed prowess for skiing at age 11 when she started competing against older children. Diggins graduated from Stillwater Area High School in 2010.

Athletic career

High school and juniors

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 Minnesota high school rankings. 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. 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. She was added to the United States World Junior Cross-Country Ski Team in 2010.

Professional

2011–2019

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 and competed at her first World Championships that year.
Diggins won a gold medal with Kikkan Randall in the team sprint in the 2013 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Val di Fiemme. At the 2014 U23 World Championships, Diggins won silver in the individual sprint. Diggins was named to the U.S. team for the 2014 Winter Olympics. In her first event, the 15 kilometer skiathlon, Diggins placed eighth with a time of 40:05.5.
Diggins won the silver medal in the 10-kilometer freestyle race in the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun. In the 2015–16 World Cup, she placed eighth in the overall and sprint rankings and ninth in the distance ranking.
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. 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.
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 10. Diggins finished second overall in the World Cup 2017–2018 season standings.
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.
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.

2020–present

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.
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. 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. She was the first non-European to win a medal in the event. Diggins left Beijing as the most decorated American cross-country skier of all time. 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.
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.
File:People in banana costumes watching Jessie Diggins at the Loppet Cup in Minneapolis.jpg|thumb|Diggins at the Stifel Loppet Cup in Minneapolis, 2024
Diggins posted the most successful season ever for an American skier during the 2023–24 FIS Cross-Country World Cup. 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. For 2024, Diggins was awarded the Holmenkollen Medal, the highest Norwegian honor in skiing—Diggins was the first American to ever receive the distinction. For the 2023–24 World Cup season, Diggins claimed both the overall individual titleher second title after winning it in 2021and the distance title. She set a United States' records with six victories and 12 podium finishes for the season.
Despite an early season foot injury, Diggins won the 2024–25 FIS Cross-Country World Cup.

Cross-country skiing results

Olympic Games

3 medals –

Year	Age	10 km individual	15 km skiathlon	30 km mass start	Sprint	4 × 5 km relay	Team sprint
2014	22	—	8	40	12	9	—
2018	26	5	5	7	6	5	Gold
2022	30	8	6	Silver	Bronze	6	5

World Championships

7 medals –

Year	Age	Individual	Skiathlon	Mass start	Sprint	Relay	Team sprint
2011	19	—	28	—	29	9	—
2013	21	23	—	DNF	—	4	Gold
2015	23	Silver	—	DNF	—	4	8
2017	25	—	DNF	5	Silver	4	Bronze
2019	27	25	—	4	8	5	5
2021	29	4	15	—	24	4	—
2023	31	Gold	—	—	21	5	Bronze
2025	33	—	13	22	23	6	Silver

World Cup

Season titles

6 titles –
Season standings

Individual podiums

31 victories –
77 podiums –

No.

Season

Date

Location

Race

Level

Place

2015–16

January 8, 2016

Team podiums

2 victories –
11 podiums –

No.