Jessie Diggins competes at the FIS Cross Country Ski World Cup on Dec. 7, 2019 in Lillehammer, Norway.
There came Jessie Diggins, once again: with the quickest time in the 52-competitor field in the women’s 4x5-kilometer relay, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist helped the U.S. team take silver at Sunday’s FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway.
Skiing the anchor leg for Team USA, Diggins dug deep and covered her five kilometers in a blistering 14 minutes, 37.1 seconds, the fastest split of the day by 8.7 seconds. Her effort, along with that of two-time Olympians Sophie Caldwell and Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, and 2018 Olympian Rosie Brennan, finished 48.9 seconds behind the host Norwegian team on the final day of competition in picturesque Lillehammer.
Other U.S. times were 15:20 for Brennan, 16:19.5 for Maubet Bjornsen and 16:54.7 for Caldwell, giving the Americans a total time of 1 hour, 3 minutes 11.3 seconds over the Lillehammer course. Norway won gold in 1:02:22.4, while Sweden took bronze in 1:03:42.1.
It was the second silver of the weekend for Diggins, an Olympic gold medalist in the women’s team sprint free; the 28-year-old also finished second in the women’s skiathlon Saturday.
The winner of that event, three-time Olympic medalist Therese Johaug, picked up her second gold as part of the winning Norwegian relay team, sharing the podium with skiathlon bronze medalist Heidi Weng, Maiken Caspersen Falla and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen. Sweden, Finland, and a second Norwegian team rounded out the top five.
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.
