After clinching the World Cup overall title last week, Jessie Diggins added the season distance title Sunday. Diggins, of Afton, finished fourth in a 30-kilometer freestyle pursuit in Engadin, Switzerland, to end the World Cup cross-country ski racing season with two of the three women's crowns.
Diggins led the distance standings heading into the final two races last weekend. She was fifth in Saturday's 10k classic mass start in Engadin, maintaining a 43-point cushion over Sweden's Ebba Andersson. Sunday, Andersson battled Norway's Heidi Weng for the victory in the 30k, finishing 4.5 seconds behind Weng's winning time of 1 hour, 28 minutes, 11.6 seconds.
Russia's Yulia Stupak edged Diggins for third, but Diggins' placing was good enough to give her the distance title by 13 points over Andersson. The first American woman to win a World Cup overall title in cross-country skiing, Diggins also is the first U.S. athlete to win a World Cup distance championship.
"I knew the distance globe was definitely up in the air going into this weekend," Diggins told US Ski & Snowboard. "And I knew I was going to have to fight really, really hard to keep it. I crossed the finish line Saturday and Sunday with nothing left, which is always the goal for me."
Diggins finished fourth in the sprint standings, with Slovenia's Anamarija Lampic winning the season title.
