Jessie Diggins will finish an at times painful and tearful season in the same place as she did last year — as the World Cup overall champion.
Diggins, a 33-year-old from Minnesota, mathematically clinched her third career overall title on Sunday with three races left in the 31-race, November-to-March season.
The World Cup overall title goes each year to the skier who accumulates the most points based off results across all events — from sprints to distance races in the classic and freestyle techniques.
Diggins’ lead over German Victoria Carl is 430 points, an insurmountable gap over the last three races through next Sunday.
In 2020-21, Diggins became the second American woman or man (after Bill Koch) and the first non-European woman to win an overall title in cross-country skiing. In 2023-24, she became the first North American woman or man to win a second title.
Diggins has won six individual races this World Cup season, three after a Jan. 5 MRI showed she had a partially torn plantar fascia.
“It felt like I was tearing my foot in half,” she said.
At the World Championships from Feb. 26 to March 9, Diggins won her seventh world medal, a team sprint silver with Julia Kern, to add to her Olympic medals of every color.
She had individual results of 13th, 22nd and 23rd at worlds in Trondheim, Norway, and was in tears after her last race there.
“Thanks everyone for all the unconditional love and support after what was overall a hard World Championships for me emotionally,” she posted going into this weekend’s races. “Although it had some incredible parts to it that I’ll never forget, like the epic cheering and the team sprint day with Julia and the whole team!
“I think it’s important that last weekend the world got to see me cry, instead of smile, for once. Athletes are humans first, and everyone you’ve ever watched on TV or looked up to has gone through hard moments and felt the whole range of emotions, whether or not you actually saw it.
“It’s also important to say that even if you fail spectacularly to meet the expectations of others in front of the whole world, you can pick yourself back up and get back to baseline.”
Diggins is working toward a fourth Olympics in 2026. She is already the most decorated U.S. cross-country skier in Olympic history, World Championships history and World Cup history.
Jessie Diggins begins another cross-country skiing season with a “holy grail” race among her focuses.
