Jessie Diggins is first U.S. cross-country skier to win individual world title
olympics.nbcsports.comSubmitted by smackslips t3_11e5k0c in sports
Submitted by smackslips t3_11e5k0c in sports
She is on a mission. Amazing to see such a great athlete continue to push forward. 💪
Wooow! That is amazing!
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wow I did not know they give out medals for skiing across the country!
Guessing you have a few less people than the US?
If you have less to pick from, you're less likely to find the "best in the world."
It's just that the US didn't have that many X-C skiers in the past, and still doesn't have a lot of places with the necessary snow for it.
Signed Captain Obvious? ;)
Can we watch this somewhere?
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What a boss. She’s from Saint Paul and that makes me proud as a local!
Skiandsnowboard.live is the official u s ski team streaming partner this year
Bro, look at Norway. They are amazing at the Winter Olympics! Size and population are not the only factors.
Her gold-medal finish in the team sprint at the 2018 Olympics was thrilling.
They advertise renting snowshoes and cross country skiing equipment in our area. I was not surprised she’s from Minnesota. It’s SO popular here.
It was the greatest TV call in the history of skiing. The dude yelling/screaming was her former coach.
In 1976, Bill Koch won the US’ first xc Olympic medal, a silver in the men's 30 km race at the Innsbruck Olympics.
The result was so unexpected that US TV didn’t even cover the race.
He was one of the pioneers of freestyle cross country skiing right?
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Yup, he created skate skiing (edit apparently popularized but didn’t create!) a much faster technique that totally revolutionized the sport, similar to what the Fosbury flop did for the high jump.
And she won by 14 seconds! That is a huge lead.
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It's more about that Estonia had quite a few doping cases in XC skiing in the past and that basically killed interest.
I’d say it’s more similar to the butterfly stroke in swimming. Some dude figured out that the motions of the butterfly were legal within the former rules of the breast stroke, so he did that and they ended up creating a new discipline within swimming. Skate and Classic are two different disciplines within Nordic skiing. The manufacturers loved it because it required everyone to have two sets of equipment 😂
It's definitely not.
Gives me goosebumps.
I remember watching the team sprint in 2018 during the Olympics and just being so psyched that America won the gold with Diggins and Randall. Just love watching a sport normally dominated by other countries being won by country who doesn't usually win the top prize.
MINNESOTA HYPE TRAIN --->> CHOO CHOO!! ALL ABOARD!!
Cross country skiing is not a mass participation sport in the US. I live in a place that gets reliable snow (or at least it used to up until a decade ago), and you would really have to seek out xc ski racing. Every high school has basketball teams in my area, but very few have xc skiing even though it would be a good complement to track (spring) and cross country running (fall).
Yes there is a lot of potential for finding the best with a higher population, but if these people never get introduced to the sport it won’t happen. On the other hand Norway has a population of less than Minnesota, but routinely dominates xc and biathlon. (Speaking of biathlon, you’d think the US would be good at it because, ya know, guns, but it’s the only Olympic sport we’ve never medaled in)
Hopefully one thing that will come out of the success of the American women in xc skiing over the past few years is increased interest in the sport, not just competitively but also recreationally. If nothing else it would give the people in my area a fun activity to do in the winter so they’d stop bitching every time it snows.
>The result was so unexpected that US TV didn’t even cover the race.
US TV networks and specially NBC in recent years are terrible at covering Olympics and in particular non-mainstream sports.
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That was thrilling. Thanks!
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Ah yeah fair point! Skate didn’t replace classic. I’m Just glad more people are learning about the sport as a whole! I saw an interview with Kikkan Randall a few years ago and she talked about how she’s a huge celebrity in Europe and then she goes home and nobody recognizes her, even though at the time she was one of the best and most successful athletes representing the US.
If you haven't done it yet, do it. XC Skiing is a lifetime sport, I just jumped on the train here this year (in Minn.) and have been absolutely hooked. No better way to enjoy winter here than XC skiing.
It’s not “recent years.” It’s been terrible since I can remember (1988) and every 2 years gets worse.
One glorious winter I had access to CBC and NBC for the Winter Games and CBC’s coverage was excellent.
Congrats Jessie! I was hoping for Ebba or Frida but I'm glad Jessie won it, anytime a nation other than Sweden or Norway wins is good for the sport.
HERE COMES DIGGENS will forever live in history with call in that battle
Was gonna post this myself if I didn’t see it here. Probably my favorite sports moment ever.
CBC Olympic coverage back in the early 2000's was the ONLY way to watch the Olympics. So much better than NBC was at the time. Streaming has changed everything.
I never heard of biathlon before this comment. Thank you for introducing me to the world of guns on skis.
My sleepy ass read this as "cross-dresser" at first
Jessie is an indisputably great person, and an amazing ambassador for the sport. In 2011(?) she raced nationals in Rumford, ME, and wrote a glowing letter thanking everybody--volunteers, the town, the spectators. Next year they returned to Rumford, so I somehow contacted her and asked her if she'd visit our school to speak. She declined that, with busy schedule, and wanting to reduce exposure to the cesspool of germs in a school, but offered to ski with the middle school team I coached. She brought along Jennie Bender, who was also a pretty big-deal racer. My son was in 8th grade at the time, and has gone on to ski collegiately and now coaches at Alaska-Fairbanks, in no small part because of Jessie and Jennie.
She's a hero.
They're coming back. My kid coaches Mariel Pulles and Chris Kalev at Fairbanks and got to coach them at World Uni Games. Mariel, in particular, is a good one. She'll start making some noise on the World Cup tour soon.
Remember when the snowboarder Ludeska won Olympic gold in downhill skiing after they shut the coverage off? And had to bounce back on replay to show the greatest upset ever?
Edit- reminded it was Super G, point stands
Yup NBC Olympic coverage is awful if it's not figure skating.
Great way to overcome Seasonal Affect Disorder. Fresh air and sunshine in the doldrums of winter do wonders for mental and physical health.
So many of the top racers are easy to root for. Jessie will always be my favorite, but on any given day it's usually easy to be happy for whoever is on the podium...though I can't say I miss Johaug that much...
I must be too tired. I read that as she skied across the country from coast to coast.
Video of all the biathlon World Cup (a series of races for top competitors throughout each winter) and world championships races are free at https://www.eurovisionsports.tv/ibu/
The biathlon world championships were just held a week or two ago. There are several different formats of races - interval starts where each person competes individually and whoever has the best time at the end wins, relays with either same-gender or mixed-gender, and a mass start where everyone starts at once and the first across the line wins.
The men’s and women’s mass starts were both particularly good this year, they’d be a good introduction to biathlon imo.
Men: https://www.eurovisionsports.tv/ibu/#ABSQGMVLKH
Women: https://www.eurovisionsports.tv/ibu/#APVTYFQZ33
There’s also /r/biathlon but I don’t really go on there much so I can’t vouch for it myself.
Cheers!
Edit: the link for the men’s race doesn’t work right, this one will take you directly to the video: https://ebu-emp.ebu.ch/embed/ABSQGMVLKH
I've tried explaining this to my partner but she just despises the cold. Hoping she comes around next year and goes out on the trails with me more.
As a Norwegian and so used to watching whole races when growing up and not recaps like this, wtf with the random signing of the board. This frantic cutting in this recap is the weirdest experience in a while. Was this some AI doing this?
Aaand... the XC World Cup will be in the Twin Cities next year after having been canceled in 2020 due to COVID!
For those who don't know, it is extremely rare for the XC World Cup to hold races outside Europe. So this is a big deal, and I believe Jessie Diggins has been one of the people advocating hard for it to come to North America more often.
When she feels exhaustion start to take hold, she internally repeats 17 "dig-in"s.
Yay Jessie! She is a phenomenal skier and person. Her memoir "Brave Enough" is well worth a read. And she has been a role model for teambuilding and team member inclusion in a sport where some stars have been notably aloof from their national teams.
Yup, countless example of showing events on tape delayed when it should've/could've been shown live and then not showing the full event but chop it up where they only show american(s) and perhaps medal winning portion if applicable. And also broadcast it where for something like SG event - btw Ledecká won the upset gold in SuperG event not downhill but hey close enough for government work - will be done with showing like 5-6 skiers on tape delay then go 4 minute commercial break then go back to figure skating for 40 minutes then come back and show 6 other SG runs.
The only good thing I can say is, at least with streaming which NBC was forced to do, I can watch the events live instead of only prime time chopped up "plausibly live" coverage.
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So it turns out the secret to being a successful Minnesota skiier is to wear your own bib.
Forgot it was Super g but still a premier event in which I got to watch them scramble to try to figure out how they missed in a Marquee event they missed it entirely. I get she started like 45th, and almost never happens, but even their make up replay coverage was so tone deaf. Like they cared more about explaining why they totally weren't wrong for not staying live.
I mean I might have cut it after the first 30. But just fix it with a good add on coverage. Don't cut back in to explain how right you were. Lol
The real secret is just to just classic while double poling only so you only have to buy one pair of skis but still wear combi boots
I agree. Streaming will save the shit show of their broadcasting so they can focus on 4 hours of ice dancing. It's basically dancing with the stars for them and I guess that's what viewers eat up.
I'm guessing Michaela shiffrin will win her 120th title on replay while the Estonian pair in ice dancing puts up an 11th place performance live. 😃
It was worse than you remember b/c Ledecká was bib# 26. I mean I get that only the top 20 is seeded and alpine racing is not figure skating. But come on NBC should've put it on live on one of the gazillion cable channels uninterrupted until the conclusion of the race/event.
Exactly. And if super g isn't a big enough sell for MSNBC 3 then what the hell is?
That being said, they have covered the Hahnenkamm well when they have had it. So I'll give them a little slack thanks to that fact.
Not sure why so downvoted this made me lol.
You are the MVP for linking original quality video clip. YouTube will only net you someone with a phone recording their TV while screaming along. Lol
Well, I think it wasn't SG necessarily but the "women's" part was more germane part. Related to the Jessie Diggins, she is swimming upstream in multiple levels competing in women's nordic racing.
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Recaps of cross country can be really boring. I watch the whole race or nothing.
But I'm like you used to cross country as I'm a swede
Even if I am a swede I agree . We have after all already got a full podium already this year.
Jessie Diggens back on topic has actually changed the culture of cross country skiing in Minnesota. She has set up camps and has young Minnesotans thinking they can beat the Scandinavians at their own game. I'm pretty sure there are a few inspired by her that are getting ready to be next.
She's a pretty amazing person. Won't lie, got an autograph when she did a event in Duluth after her win in 18.
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She’s “one of us” in my area. Local news outlets creaming their pants right now.
got damn that got me fired UP at my desk at work LOL
It looks so fun, but I'm in Kansas, so we don't have the sustained cold and snow over the winter to be able to try it without traveling. Plus I'm a cyclist, so there's some overlap there (it seems like xc ski is popular cross training).
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You can also teach toddlers to run, but it’s flipping hard to win a marathon with best runners from around the world.
She went to my high school! Apparently my older brother had a few classes. We got to stop class and watch her compete.
lol, apparently there is a competition to be the most serious person on reddit, too :D
It’s commonplace in Minnesota.
I actually sorta competed on the same cross country team as her basically because men and womens team practiced together… I was 4 years too young to know her but my brother did from classes.
She also lived in Afton where they have the ski hill called afton alps attached to afton state park where they have groomed trails for Nordic, which is what we called cross country.
Chad Salmela, the caller, is from Duluth, MN, Diggins' home state. He did a podcast interview about it. I'll find it.
I don't know if this is the episode, but this is relevant. He also hosts a podcast titled Threshold.
Isn’t she from afton? She went to my high school in Stillwater I know that for sure.
Here during the Minnesota summers it’s not an uncommon site on the bike trails and foot paths to see people “skiing” on their extended roller blades that are basically skis with wheels. I’ve only tried it once, fun fact i got to use those roller blades for summer practice while being apart of the same Nordic team she was on but like four years after.
Ha same, you from Stillwater or afton?
Not sure why you where down voted that’s really funny.
I'm on your side. Really not that hard to learn how to ski. Learning to ski well is more about being amazingly in shape, technical skill comes later.
I'm guessing all the down votes have never tried skiing and just imagine it's difficult
Makes me cry every time even though it’s not my sport. I suppose it’s the mostly the passionate announcing but there’s something about when she launches into the final sprint. A solo athlete on the brink of exhaustion digging in for an effort that they’ve dedicated their whole life to.
Ok now go ski up the mountain. Let me know if you can still do this
I'm in a limited snow state, but I could. You don't forget 8 years of xc skiing. Might be rusty and out of shape but it's like riding a bike
Wow! Had to read that title twice. Not the first woman. Not the first man. Not the first black American. But the first American wow! That’s impressive!!
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Can someone post a link to the actual event instead of whatever the F that dumb NBC musak video they had at the linked article?
Fucking. Epic.
The call and emotion from him (Chad Salmela), was second to none.
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It's probably the hardest Olympic level endurance sport. I'm a competitive endurance cyclist and have done cross country skiing and the two aren't close.
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He didn't create it. Johan Grøttumsbråten used it all the way back in the 1930s, and it was used in ski marathons up until Koch built on it and popularized it in the 80s on the biggest stage.
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I've skied up mountains, down mountains and across highlands on cross country skis since I was a little boy. It's really not hard, you just need to be in decent shape if you want to go fast. My mom is past 70 and still goes for 5 or 10 mile trips regularly for some light exercise.
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He didn't say competitive skiing was hard, he said skiing itself was hard. Which it's very much not.
Man, the 2018 Olympics were awesome.
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As is Louie Anderson, Josh Hartnett and Vincent Karthheiser.
She’s from Afton, per her memoir. But St. Paul likes to claim her.
Well non of the medal winner were never caught doping i guess but they probably were doing it. Guess they had good enough support team to make sure they are “cleared”.
Tho the recent doping scandal, boosting and still finishing 60++, just goes to show that even if you do dope, you still got to have the strength and skill to compete for medal.
And now we have tandem classic skiing, sure to be a hit at the next Winter Olympics https://youtu.be/jS2g4Z0VNf0
Biathlon is a big deal for me because it was the first sport where I enjoyed watching men’s and women events equally, and then I realized my gender bias in sports and changed my attitude across the board. I was a younger teenager at the time, so always a bit thankful. Also I hope the U.S. gets a medal soon.
Here it is. First half in Russian for some reason but the rest in English...
This is a big deal. A huge achievement. Congratulations Jesse Diggins.
Edited thanks! Typical American man taking the credit 😂
Few have deserved it more. Congrats from Sweden!
It’s not as hard as swimming the butterfly, I’ll give you that
Amazing accomplishment
Frida and Ebba will take her in the next race
Still can't believe Sweden lost it, so good at sprint usually
Why? Johaug was a boss.
She was so good I could appreciate her greatness, but it was boring when every race was a race for silver.
Those two were on Team CXC together along with Caitlin Gregg, if I’m remembering correctly.
That sounds right. They both were anyway, I just don’t know Caitlin definitively. But I think you’re right.
CloudDweller182 t1_jaciqoo wrote
Still remember the days when Estonia was as good as USA is now. Now we are where USA used to be, at the back of the pack.