Diggins (USA) does it ‘for the boys’ to retain yellow bib
Dec 10, 2023·Cross-Country
Jessie Diggins (USA) made it two wins in as many weeks to continue her flying start to the 2023/24 FIS World Cup season and retain the yellow bib as the overall leader after blowing away the field in the 10km Freestyle in Östersund, Sweden on Sunday.
The effervescent American, who has a World Cup event on home snow in Minnesota to look forward to later in the season, made the most of the interval-start format to apply her single-minded approach to racing.
Making a trademark fast start, the 32-year-old – who won gold over this distance at the World Championships in Planica, Slovenia, earlier this year – established an early lead she never looked like surrendering in the absence of many of her closest rivals.
German star Katharina Hennig and 2022-23 World Cup champion Tiril Udnes Weng (NOR) were among those missing. So too Swedish sprint specialists Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling, who is still recovering after Covid. This left the home crowd’s hopes resting on Tour de Ski champion Fride Karlsson and double world champion Ebba Andersson.
But Karlsson was always off the pace and Andersson, after a fast start, faded badly. This left no Swedish women on a World Cup podium for the first time since Falun in March, a run going back nine races. In fact, Emma Ribom, winner of Saturday’s sprint, was the highest-placed Swede down in ninth place.
Diggins, meanwhile – after French youngster Flora Dolci had set the early pace - made light of a challenging, hilly course in increasingly snowy conditions in central Sweden. She was in front at every split, gradually increasing her lead to cross the line in 27 minutes and 5.6 seconds, 23 seconds ahead of Heidi Weng (NOR).
After winning her 16th career World Cup race, the 2021 overall champion dedicated victory to the US men, who claimed third and fourth in Saturday’s sprint: “It really was the inspiration from the boys yesterday that made me go so fast today. Oh my God, I cried so hard [yesterday], I was so happy. I’m so thankful to those boys for what they did. I went out there and was like ‘I’ve just gotta ski like JC [Schoonmaker] out here! So, I was trying to keep that going.”
“We had great skis. Our tech[nical] team has been on fire, working so hard, and I’m so grateful. I felt like I was flying out there, that was so fun, those downhills are amazing, it was a blast to ski out there.”
A two-time over World Cup champion and veteran of more than 75 World Cup podiums going back to 2012, Weng benefitted from going out exactly a minute behind Diggins. The 32-year-old Norwegian used Diggins, just a month her junior, as a marker to claim her first medal since January, in a time of 27:28.6.
Another experienced skier, Victoria Carl, claimed bronze, her first individual podium in a 10-year World Cup career. The 28-year-old made some technical adjustments in the off season, which seem to be paying off.
Diggins leads the overall World Cup standings by 37 points, ahead of compatriot Rosie Brennan, who finished fifth on Sunday, with Ribom just a further point behind.
Click here for full results from Östersund.
