Cross-country skier Jessie Diggins of Afton wraps up her busy Beijing Olympics on Sunday with the final event of the Games: the women's 30-kilometer mass start.
Diggins finished seventh at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in the 30k race with a time of 1 hour, 25 minutes, 54.80 seconds — 3:37 behind winner Marit Bjoergen of Norway and 1:38 behind bronze medalist Stina Nilsson of Sweden. But four years ago, the race used the classical technique; this time, the race is in Diggins' preferred freestyle technique.
Bjoergen, the most decorated Winter Olympian in history with 15 medals, has retired, but another Norwegian is favored to win. Therese Johaug, who already has gold medals in Beijing in the skiathlon and 10k, was the silver medalist in the 30k at the 2014 Olympics and is a four-time world champion in the 30k. Finland's Krista Parmakoski, the 2018 silver medalist, also is back.
Skiers from Europe have won all 10 editions of the women's long-distance event at the Olympics, which was a 20k event in 1984 and 1988 before being extended to 30k.
Diggins finished fourth in a 30k freestyle last year in the final World Cup race of the season, which gave her the season distance title as well as the overall championship. She also finished fourth in the 30k at the 2019 world championships.
She has one World Cup medal in the 30k, earning a silver in a 30k freestyle mass start in 2018 in Oslo.
Diggins prepared for the Olympics by undertaking one of the hardest tests in cross-country skiing: the Tour de Ski, a series of six races at varying distances over eight days. The Tour de Ski gave her a dress rehearsal for the grind of the Olympic schedule, which includes six races over 15 days. Her training has worked well so far, allowing her to race to exhaustion in each event and recover fully before the next. She finished in the top eight in her previous five events, including a bronze medal in the freestyle sprint.
Joining Diggins as the U.S. starters are Rosie Brennan, Novie McCabe and Sophia Laukli, who will make her Olympics debut.
The skier head off at 12:30 a.m. Central time on USA Network. The race will be re-aired at 1 p.m. on Ch. 11.
Medals for the race will be given at the Closing Ceremony, which begins at 6 a.m. The Closing Ceremony will be streamed live on Peacock's premium tier and NBCOlympics.com and televised on Ch. 11 at 7 p.m.
