Apr 5, 2020
We could all use a smile or two right now, and we believe this interview will give you just that. Jessie Diggins and her teammate Kikkan Randall won the first ever gold medal for the US in cross country skiing in the Winter Olympics in 2018. You might remember the epic finish as Jessie outsprinted a Swedish and Norwegian athlete to earn gold by half a ski before collapsing and being jumped on by Kikkan in celebration. It was a beautiful moment, but as you will learn in this interview with Kara and Chris, Jessie's story is so much bigger than one moment.
She was on skis before she could walk and showed promise early on. We talk about her journey as a clean athlete from her childhood to early success as a ski racer in high school and then her entry into international racing against the dominant Nordic countries. She discusses a day in the life of training and how the US has made such great strides internationally in the sport, even before her Olympic medal. She tells the story of her own battle with an eating disorder and how she shifted her mindset to focus on what her body can do vs. how it looks.
In addition, she gives insight into the clean sport culture in XC ski racing and how she was heartbroken just last year when an athlete she knew was busted for blood doping. Then finally, she takes us through her gold medal race moment by moment from her mindset on the start line through to every pole push down the finishing straight and how she didn't even know who jumped on her in celebration because she was seeing stars from the effort.
As we said, Jessie's positive energy will make you smile, and we couldn't be more excited and honored to have her on the podcast. Join Jessie for the virtual launch of her book Brave Enough on April 7th at 11 am EST. You can find all of the details here:
https://loft.org/olympic-training-jessie-diggins
We can't wait to read her full story. She is brave enough indeed.