Watch Jessie Diggins’ career highlights in cross-country skiing as she enters her final season

Afton’s Jessie Diggins has one more cross-country ski season to add to her career accolades before heading off into retirement in 2026. But for now, here are some of the highlights for the most decorated American cross-country skier in history:

She knew the deepest recesses of the pain cave were waiting for her, somewhere in the final snow-covered corner of the Olympic course. So Jessie Diggins did what she always does: She put her head down, dug in hard and skied right toward it.

Diggins was tearing through the final meters of the women’s team sprint in a frantic chase with Sweden’s Stina Nilsson for the Olympic gold medal. Her legs burned. Her mind grew hazy. But if she was going to make history with teammate Kikkan Randall, Diggins knew she had to charge into the pain cave — that dark, excruciating place at the end of every cross-country ski race — with no fear.

“In that last corner, I don’t know what I was thinking, except, ‘Go! Go! Go!,’ ” the Afton native said. “You’re going to have to dig really deep. I was in a lot of pain, for sure. But when your team is counting on you, you’ve got to give it everything you have.”

Diggins plunged in, thrust out her ski at the finish line and collapsed in the snow, not knowing her fate. When Randall jumped on her, it became clear: They had just become the first American women to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing, and it was golden.

“I was like, ‘Did we just win the Olympics?’ ” Diggins said, recalling her first words to Randall after the race. “And she was like, ‘Yeah.’ It was amazing. It feels unreal. I can’t believe it just happened. But we’ve been feeling so good these entire Games, and just having it happen at a team event means so much more to me than any individual medal ever would.” - Rachel Blount

In a way, Jessie Diggins wishes she had won the World Cup overall title in a more normal year. She knows some people will attach an asterisk to her historic achievement, given that cross-country skiing powers Norway, Sweden and Finland sat out several races because of COVID-19.

When she pushed her ski over the finish line, Jessie Diggins wasn’t sure she had won a medal. She glanced up at the video screen and saw her name in third place, but she still wasn’t ready to believe it.

Diggins had wrung every last ounce of energy out of her body in her second race of the Beijing Olympics. A little disoriented — and a little afraid to celebrate just yet — she kept looking at the results board, seeking confirmation that she really was an Olympic bronze medalist.

“Then I saw our whole team along the finish line, right along the boards,” Diggins said. “And that’s when I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. We got a medal.’ ”

Diggins has made a habit of making history, and Tuesday’s bronze just added to her long list of breakthroughs. The Afton native became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic medal in an individual cross-country skiing event, finishing behind Sweden’s Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist. - Rachel Blount

Jessie Diggins didn’t cry when she lay in bed with food poisoning. She admitted she had a moment of self-pity, but with her final race at the Beijing Olympics only hours away, that wasn’t going to do any good.

When Diggins approached the finish, though, she felt the tears coming. The Afton native could hear dozens of people cheering her on, helping to lift her to an Olympic silver medal in one of the gutsiest races of her career.

On the final day of the Beijing Olympics, Diggins seized her last shot to make more history. She finished second to runaway winner Therese Johaug of Norway, earning her second medal of the Beijing Games. Diggins’ silver matched the best Olympic finish ever by a U.S. cross-country skier in an individual event, and it made her the first American in the sport to win more than one medal at a single Olympics.

“That might have been the best race of my entire life,” said Diggins, who also won bronze in the sprint. “I’m not going to lie. It was also maybe the hardest race of my entire life.” - Rachel Blount

On the eve of the Loppet Cup, Jessie Diggins was asked what it would mean to her to stand on top of the podium. Despite the emotion swirling around her first World Cup event in her home country, she wanted to keep the pressure low.

“If I have my priorities straight, it won’t mean anything different than being dead last,” the Afton native said. “The real win was getting to be here.”

In the afterglow of her race, Diggins’ teammates hoisted her up to blow kisses to a crowd of 20,000.

“This whole weekend has been my career dream come true,” Diggins said. “It barely feels real.

“Everyone came ready to celebrate skiing in this country. This is something I’ve been working towards for a very long time. I’ve never been more proud, maybe of anything.” - Rachel Blount

Jessie Diggins had cradled the crystal globe on the World Cup podium shortly after locking up the overall championship Sunday, then handed it off for safekeeping.

Diggins wasn’t worried about the hardware. As much as the Afton native appreciated the globe — and the history that came with it — that wasn’t the prize she cherished the most on the season’s final day. After wrapping up the schedule with a victory in Falun, Sweden, Diggins said the real reward was simply making it through the most difficult stretch of her World Cup career.