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Alessandra Tarantino/AP
Jessie Diggins made historical past on a number of fronts Sunday when she took the silver within the girls’s 30-kilometer freestyle mass begin in Beijing. Not solely did she turn out to be the primary non-European athlete to carry dwelling a medal within the occasion, she’s now the one American to carry again a number of cross-country medals from the identical Olympics — and he or she did it having barely recovered from meals poisoning.
Diggins’ second-place end Sunday marked her third Olympic medal. Having introduced dwelling the bronze within the dash finals practically two weeks in the past and the gold within the workforce dash freestyle in 2018, the 30-year-old Minnesota native has a medal of each shade, making her the winningest cross-country skier in U.S. Olympic historical past.
Her podium end was made much more spectacular when phrase bought out that Diggins had been affected by meals poisoning main as much as the race.
“That is one of many hardest issues I’ve ever performed in my entire life, particularly as a result of I had meals poisoning 30 hours in the past, which is why I assumed I used to be going to die on the end line,” Diggins mentioned.
Diggins completed behind Norway’s gold medalist, Johaug Therese, and 50 seconds forward of Finland’s Niskanen Kerttu. She had climbed to second place a few third of the best way into the race and held her floor.
She battled frigid temperatures and excessive winds the complete 30 kilometers, although her legs started to cramp up midway by, a Group USA information launch mentioned. When she lastly crossed the end line, exhausted and out of breath, she collapsed.
“That may have been one of the best race of my complete life, I am not going to lie,” Diggins mentioned. “It was additionally possibly the toughest race of my entire life.”
Her silver introduced Group USA’s medal rely for the video games to 25. America hadn’t carried out notably effectively in cross-country snowboarding earlier than Diggins got here on the scene. Till Diggins and her teammate, Kikkan Randall, took the gold within the workforce dash in 2018, the final cross-country medal Group USA introduced again was in 1976, when Invoice Koch took silver within the 30k.
“It has been an emotional roller-coaster, however I’m so blissful we made it to the tip,” Diggins mentioned. “To have a medal within the dash and the 30K are the final word bookends for me. I’ve been attempting to be a very good all-round athlete my entire life, so this has been actually cool.”
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