Jessie Diggins celebrates after placing second in the overall World Cup standings on March 18, 2018 in Falun, Switzerland.
The podium parade continues for Jessie Diggins.
The women’s team sprint gold medalist from the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 closed out the greatest season of her career with another podium finish Sunday, giving her second place in the women’s overall world cup standings for the 2017-18 season and marking the best season for any American in 36 years.
Diggins recorded a second-place finish in the 10-kilometer freestyle pursuit, 16.7 seconds behind superstar Marit Bjoergen of Norway, the most decorated winter Olympian in history. Two-time U.S. Olympian Sadie Bjornsen joined Diggins on the podium, finishing third in 25:30.4.
Norway’s Heidi Weng claimed the world cup crystal globe as the most successful cross-country skier of the season with 1,476 points, followed by Diggins with 1,436 and Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg with 1,414. Bjornsen was sixth in the overall standings.
Diggins also finished third in the distance standings, with Bjornsen 10th.
The bubbly 26-year-old Diggins from Afton, Minnesota, finished her season with seven world cup podiums. Her second place in the standings is the best finish for a U.S. cross-country skier since Olympic silver medalist Bill Koch won the 1982 crystal globe. Diggins’ best finish before this season was sixth overall and seventh in distance in 2016-17.
In PyeongChang in February, Diggins and teammate Kikkan Randall won Team USA’s first-ever Olympic gold medal – and first women’s medal – in cross-country skiing, with Diggins’ dramatic come-from-behind finish on the last leg of the race also clinching Team USA’s first Olympic medal in cross-country skiing in 42 years.
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The laid-back Diggins, whose happy dances are quickly becoming a thing of legend, has continued to rack up podium finishes post-PyeongChang. She finished third at the sprint classic in Drammen, Norway earlier this month, her first-ever podium in a sprint classic race, and followed that up with a second place finish in the world cup 30K freestyle in Holmenkollen, Norway, the United States’ first women’s 30K podium.
Blythe Lawrence is a journalist based in Seattle. She has covered two Olympic Games and is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
