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One of the biggest U.S. stars at the Milan Cortina Winter Games will be cross-country ski racer Jessie Diggins. Diggins is the most decorated cross-country skier in U.S. history, with three Olympic medals and 33 World Cup wins. NPR has been spending time with Diggins since last summer, as she trained and prepared herself mentally for what she says will be her last Olympics. NPR's Brian Mann reports.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: We first met Jessie Diggins on a summer day in Vermont's green mountains. She sat lacing up her boots next to a paved country road, her long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC)
JESSIE DIGGINS: We've got the same boots, same bindings as our skis on snow. Wheels do not have brakes.
MANN: Diggins grinned at her teammate and training partner, Julia Kern, and said their biggest goal today was avoiding road rash.
JESSIE DIGGINS: I have a lot of roller ski scars. Hopefully, it's not a problem for me today, but now that I've said that I'll probably face-plant.
MANN: The women set off on special skis that work sort of like roller blades, kicking powerfully, gliding gracefully, a motion a little like ice skating. As they picked up speed, their ski poles clacked on the pavement.
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JESSIE DIGGINS: This is great.
MANN: In the summer heat, the Olympics and the mountains of Italy felt a long way off, but Diggins was already focused, fine-tuning her conditioning and her technique. She's 34 and grew up in Minnesota. And for the better part of a decade, Diggins has been the dominant figure in U.S. cross-country after shocking the sports world at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #1: And the United States has done it.
MANN: With fellow American Kikkan Randall, Diggins won gold in the women's team sprint. Diggins collapsed on the snow after scrambling to beat a Swedish skier by a fraction of a second.
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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #1: Oh, what a performance from Jess Diggins.
MANN: That moment, captured on NBC, ended a U.S. Olympic medal drought in cross-country skiing that had lasted since 1976. It was the first U.S. Olympic gold medal in the sport ever.
JESSIE DIGGINS: The other day, one of the kids asked a question of, like, what is it like to win?
MANN: In the years since South Korea, Diggins has been asked that question a lot because she kept winning a lot. In a sport long-dominated by Scandinavians, Diggins captured Olympic silver and bronze at the Beijing Games four years ago. She also racked up dozens of podium wins on the World Cup circuit. According to Diggins, her secret was learning to love training hard.
JESSIE DIGGINS: You know, the award ceremony is the coolest 10 minutes of your life. But then it's over. And what you're left with is the process. We're doing strength work. We're doing long, long runs on trails. And sometimes, it's, like, an almost imperceptible gain, and you're like, I don't even know if I really got better. It seems like I just got tired and sweaty.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHOOMP! (THERE IT IS)")
TAG TEAM: (Singing) Whoomp, there it is. Whoomp, there it is.
MANN: A couple hours later, Diggins was back at it in the gym, listening to music, putting in more miles on a treadmill.
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MANN: Julia Kern, her training partner, who will also compete in Milan, described Diggins as the team's leader and role model.
JULIA KERN: She's definitely paved the way for the next generation, and I've been really fortunate to have trained with her my whole career.
MANN: Cross-country skiing is famously grueling and complex. Racers have to master different techniques to propel themselves over the snow. To win, they have to grind long distances over challenging terrain, often in bitter cold, finishing with lung-crushing sprints. Kerns said Diggins raised the bar for how U.S. athletes prepare.
KERN: She's incredibly disciplined and is willing to push really, really hard.
MANN: But for Diggins, finding the right balance between that intensity and her own wellness has been a challenge. She struggles with an eating disorder that emerged early in her career, then surfaced again after that gold medal win in South Korea brought new fame and pressure.
JESSIE DIGGINS: Eating disorders are often not about food. It's not really about your body or what it looks like. For me, it was about control and a struggle with perfectionism. And I thought I had to be perfect.
MANN: So Diggins made changes, focusing on her health and happiness, not her race times. And like other top-tier athletes, she also began talking publicly about mental health.
JESSIE DIGGINS: It's OK to ask for help. You know, you don't have to do this all on your own. Like, I feel like I'm a really strong, capable, gritty, tough woman, and I need help. I shouldn't have to just figure this out all on my own.
MANN: Diggins said she's really healthy now. She's learned to be more flexible, and she's added fun and excitement to workouts that used to be a grind.
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JESSIE DIGGINS: Hey everyone. It's Jessie Diggins, cross-country skier. And I am on a long training session. We're training for the Winter Olympics.
MANN: Weeks after NPR first met Diggins in Vermont, and just before she set out on the World Cup racing circuit, she posted this video of herself scaling a steep, rugged mountain in New York's Adirondack Park.
JESSIE DIGGINS: I had this moment where I was just clinging to the rock, like, I don't know if I trust myself to do this. So...
MANN: A simple ankle twist or a banged-up knee this late in her training cycle could have been disastrous. But when NPR checked in with Diggins, she said the joy outweighed the danger. While training and playing ahead of these Olympics, it turns out Diggins was also talking quietly to family and teammates. She was preparing for another big change. Here's a local TV news station near where she was training in Vermont.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Jessie Diggins, the most decorated American cross-country skier in history, is retiring. Diggins says she plans to hang...
MANN: At a press conference in November, Diggins made it official. After Milan Cortina and one last U.S. race in Lake Placid, New York, she'll be done with ski racing.
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JESSIE DIGGINS: Just excited to, honestly, do a lot of gardening and most of all, be home with my husband and get to have that time together.
MANN: That decision raised questions about how Diggins would perform this winter in World Cup races and at the Olympics. Would she still have her signature focus and drive?
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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #2: Look at her go. Beautiful skiing from the American. All the way to the line. Jessie Diggins is going to win. A huge race.
MANN: That's Diggins racing in Trondheim, Norway, in video from skiandsnowboard.live. It turns out, this final year, Diggins has dominated again. She won an astonishing three World Cup races and finished second in her final pre-Olympics race in Goms, Switzerland, where she spoke with NPR's Eric Whitney near the finish line.
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ERIC WHITNEY: How do you feel?
JESSIE DIGGINS: I'm really, really tired, but I'm really happy with where things are at right now.
MANN: Diggins will step away from competition after her best World Cup season yet.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
JESSIE DIGGINS: It's made it so, so special, and I think I'm racing with just so much joy and gratitude.
MANN: Diggins said her aggressive racing schedule has primed her perfectly for Milan. She's healthy, having fun, eager to fight for another Olympic medal.
JESSIE DIGGINS: I have almost never failed to mentally find the will to dig for it. Basically, I ask myself one very simple question, and it's - how do I want to feel at the finish line? And I don't like living with regrets. I don't want to ever look back and be like, what if?
MANN: Diggins faces one unexpected pressure as she prepares to race here, the turmoil and violence back in her home state, Minnesota. Posting on Instagram, Diggins voiced sorrow about the ICE raids and killings that have shaken Minneapolis. I want to make sure you know who I'm racing for when I get to the start line at the Olympics, she said, I'm racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion. I do not stand for hate or violence or discrimination, Diggins wrote. Brian Mann, NPR News, Milan.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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