A significant crash early on Saturday dashed the hopes of Team USA for its first Winter Olympic medal.
Jesse Diggins, a three-time Olympic medalist and star in cross-country skiing, entered the women’s skiathlon as a frontrunner, with many believing she could be the first American to step onto the podium.
Unfortunately, Diggins encountered difficulties nearly immediately in the six-lap race and finished in eighth place in her event.
While Sweden’s Frida Karlsson and Eva Andersson claimed gold and silver respectively, Norway’s Heidi Wen took home the bronze. This means that American athletes will have to keep waiting for that first medal.
After the race, Diggins expressed her mixed feelings, stating she was “really proud” of how she skated, but acknowledged that “things just didn’t come together.” She recounted having “a big crash on the first lap, which didn’t help.” It seems that while she began in the lead, a slowdown caused by congestion downhill led to a bottleneck of racers.
Despite the setback, Diggins made a quick recovery and attempted to get back on track, but the lost time proved difficult to reclaim.
She’ll have another chance at medaling during the women’s cross-country ski sprint competition on Tuesday.
2026 Winter Olympics
Back at the 2022 Beijing Games, Diggins earned a bronze medal, making history as the first American to win an individual sprint medal.
She has previously captured two other Olympic medals across the last two Olympics. Notably, she and Kikkan Randall won Team USA’s first gold in the women’s team sprint during the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Diggins also secured silver in the 30km freestyle at the last Winter Olympics.
The U.S. will look to other events on Saturday for potential medals, including women’s ski jumping at 11:45 a.m. and men’s snowboarding Big Air at 1:30 p.m.
