Jessie Diggins from Saint Paul, MN wins the first Tour de Ski title for The USA
The following written content from Yahoo News
Jessie Diggins won a first title for the United States in cross-country skiing’s Tour de Ski on Sunday.
Leading the women’s time standings after seven events, Diggins placed second in the 10-kilometer final stage of the 10-day competition raced in Italy and Switzerland.
Her final time of more than three hours was 1 minute, 24 seconds ahead of Russian Yulia Stupak. Ebba Andersson of Sweden was third.
In 15 years of the marathon competition, Diggins’s third place three years ago is the only other podium finish by an American man or woman.
Four different Norwegians combined to win the past seven editions of the women’s Tour de Ski. The cross-country skiing power did not enter the 2021 competitions because of safety concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Read more from Yahoo
Her athletic career
Diggins won a gold medal with Kikkan Randall in the team sprint in the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Val di Fiemme.[2] Two years later she won the silver medal in the 10 kilometer free style race in the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 in Falun.[2]
Diggins was named to the U.S. team for the 2014 Winter Olympics. In her first event, the 15 kilometer skiathlon, she placed 8th (out of 61 competitors) with a time of 40:05.5.[8]
In the 2015/2016 World Cup, she placed 8th in the overall and sprint rankings and 9th in the distance ranking.[9]
At the 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland, Diggins took two medals: in the freestyle sprint, she won her quarter-final and semi-final heats on her way to taking the silver, ahead of team-mate Randall in third.[10] 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 take four World Championship medals in cross-country skiing.[11]
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.[12]
During the 2018 Winter Olympics she 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 PyeongChang, South Korea.[13]
At the end of the games she was chosen as the flag bearer for the United States at the closing ceremony.
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