Jessica Diggins: Cross-Country Skiing and Her Homeland’s Impact

In the end, Diggins collapsed to the floor, she lay there and didn’t get up for minutes. The many hills, the short, steep climbs and the difficult, winding descents had taken the last of her breath away. At least there were no whistles for them in the stands, as there were the night before in Milan for the US team as they entered the San Siro during the opening ceremony. Presumably also because the expert audience in Tesero knows exactly what Diggins is fighting for above all: for nothing less than a free, fair, peaceful America. And for mental and physical health, not just your own.

On Thursday, Diggins gave an impressive press conference in Tesero. She sat there with a black mask next to her five teammates, two thirds of the questions were directed at her, and then she answered further questions alone. It’s “a lot of fun for her to take on the role of mother bear now because I learned so much from my teammates when I was younger,” said Diggins, whose career will end this spring after her fourth Winter Games. But that’s only the main point of their story, which goes far beyond cross-country skiing.

What does Diggins have to lose? She has achieved everything on the sporting stage

Diggins, the Pyeongchang Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion, is from Afton, Minnesota, on the eastern edge of the metropolis of Minneapolis, through which the Mississippi flows. From that democratically governed melting pot that has been in the headlines for weeks due to the two killings of US citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti by the US immigration police ICE, accompanied by nationwide protests. In 2020, George Floyd was killed here by a police officer when he knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for almost ten minutes.

“You know,” Diggins began to the packed room, “I was born and raised in Minnesota. And it’s incredibly hard to concentrate on skiing when I see what’s happening to these wonderful places there. It’s very important to me to represent an America that is respectful, loving, caring, open and supportive of one another. Those are my values.” As she had previously told her 250,000 followers on Instagram, she does not stand for “hatred, violence or discrimination”.

Diggins is a woman who says sentences ready for printing, blessed with that quintessentially American optimism and, at the same time, an impressive sense of mission. In times when everyone is retreating, when sports professionals are weighing every word spoken beforehand, it is a blessing for these Winter Games. Also because she doesn’t shy away from sending political messages like this: “I’m really worried about the safety of the people I know back home. And my fear of what’s happening back home gives every race a deeper meaning. Because I’m here to make a difference.”

What does Diggins have to lose? She has achieved everything on the sporting stage. Not just the Olympic victory and the World Championship titles, but also overall World Cup victories in 2021, 2024 and 2025. A race like this on Saturday, after which Diggins said that she also had a collision on the first lap, can’t do much for her. It’s been running on a different level for a long time. In any case, she said on Thursday: “You can still use the Olympics as a platform to talk about important things like Minneapolis, climate change, mental health or eating disorders. Also to reduce stigma.”

Diggins suffered from bulimia, and at 18 she thought she wouldn’t last much longer

There is not only the political side of Diggins, but also a personal story of suffering. In her youth, she suffered from bulimia, a mental illness and eating disorder that involves binge eating attacks after which those affected deliberately vomit in order to avoid gaining weight. She also commented on this in detail, saying that when she was 18, she thought she wouldn’t be alive much longer. The pressure and constant checking of one’s own fitness in endurance sports, the pressure to eat in such a way that the scales don’t go too far. All of that played into it.

Diggins began to fight the disease, she got professional help, her family and her coach Jason Cork supported her. Bulimia is often a long-term companion; breaking away from it is considered a difficult task. “Two and a half years ago I had a relapse,” said Diggins, but she overcame that too: “Now I’m doing really well. And I feel that.”

That’s why it’s so important for her to talk about it: “Because eating disorders are often misunderstood, they’re very stigmatized. But I say: Hey, look, I’m here at the Olympics, I’m racing, I’m happy and healthy now because I got professional help.” Diggins says she often heard the phrase: Why can’t you just eat? “But no one chooses to have an eating disorder. And it’s OK to then overcome the hurdle and ask for help because you need it.”

Diggins has spoken about this topic many times, over and over again, on social media, at speaking engagements, now at the Olympics. She knows she had to pay a high price for making it public. “But if you really want change, change has a price, right?” she says: “For me the price is my privacy. But I’m willing to pay it to try to save lives.”

On February 23, an NBC documentary will be released about Diggins, the Olympic cross-country skiing champion who conquered her demons and now sets out to fight for the values that are increasingly disappearing in her country. That may sound cheesy, but on the other hand it is a story that can perhaps only be written in America. “The story you’ll see in this film ends with hope, health and happiness. And that’s what I want for everyone,” says Diggins.

But she is ambitious enough not to write off these Olympic Games just yet after her eighth place. She continues to wear a mask to protect her health, even when she is with her husband Wade, her parents, her aunts and uncles and friends. They all came. Her grandmother, she says, “even trained on the stepper in the gym for this long trip.” She only wants one thing for her last big appearance on the sports stage: “That I can just hug my mother after I cross the finish line. No matter how it went.”