Milan Cortina, skiing: final Olympic chapter for champion Jessie Diggins

Turin, Jan. 28 (LaPresse/AP) – Win or lose, Jessie Diggins plans to celebrate her last Olympics. More than 40 friends and family members will travel to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games to watch America’s most decorated cross-country skier chase Olympic glory for the last time. The 34-year-old from Minnesota will retire at the end of the season. “I’m really excited to have a whole weekend off,” Diggins said from the U.S. team’s training base in Livigno, “I realize it sounds a little crazy, but I haven’t had two days in a row that are really mine in a long time. So it’s going to be really special.” Before that, she will compete in her fourth Olympics. With gold, silver, and bronze medals already to her name, Diggins is one of the big favorites to add another title to her collection in Milan-Cortina. This year, along the World Cup circuit, growing groups of US teammates have gathered to support her, a presence that has coincided with her maintaining the lead in the women’s overall standings. “It’s been amazing to feel so much love for the different sports,” she said after winning her third overall title at the Tour de Ski in northern Italy this month, “it’s been really amazing.” She returned to the podium last weekend in Goms, Switzerland, in the final World Cup race before the Olympics, where she finished second in the 20-kilometer classic, just 0.9 seconds behind Finland’s Johanna Matintalo. Growing up in Afton, outside Minneapolis, Diggins tried any sport that could absorb her boundless energy: skating, soccer, dance, gymnastics, climbing, and track and field. She began competing in skiing while still in elementary school. In 2018, she was at the center of a historic breakthrough, teaming up with Kikkan Randall in the sprint to win the first—and still only—U.S. Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing.