The pain was worth the gain for Jessie Diggins.
The American cross-country skier writhed in pain as she crossed the finish line for a bronze medal Thursday in the women’s 10km freestyle at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
The 34-year-old Diggins fought through bruised ribs suffered Saturday and collapsed after completing the race with a time of 23:38.9 for the fourth Olympic medal of her career.
“I need a new body,” Diggins told reporters following the race. “Honestly, I think I’m the happiest, most grateful bronze medallist in the whole world.
“It’s been one heck of a painful week. Two days ago, I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”
The Minnesota native previously had won Team USA’s first Olympic gold in cross-country skiing in the team sprint with Kikkan Randall at the 2018 PyeongChang Games before adding two medals in 2022 in Beijing: A bronze in the sprint classic and a silver in the 30k freestyle.
But her 2026 Olympics got off to a rocky start with disappointing finishes in the 10km + 10km skathlon (fifth place) on Saturday, including a crash that caused her rib injury and failing to reach the quarterfinals of the women’s sprint classic on Tuesday. The latter result halted Diggins’ streak of top-10 finishes in all six of her women’s events at the Games in 2018 and 2022.
Sweden’s Frida Karlsson (22:49.2) and Ebba Andersson (23:35.8) finished ahead of Diggins in Thursday’s race for the gold and silver medals.
2026 WINTER OLYMPICS
Diggins remained down in the snow for several minutes after crossing in third position, before American teammate Hailey Swirbul helped her remove her skis and get to her feet.
Diggins was able to jump a few times on the podium as chants of “Jessie, Jessie!” erupted from the crowd.
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