Despite injured ribs, Jessie Diggins pushed through the pain to compete in the women’s 10km freestyle race at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Here’s how Team USA did.
MILAN, Metropolitan City of Milan — Four Team USA athletes raced among 111 competitors vying for the chance to win gold Thursday in the women’s cross-country skiing 10km event.
Team USA’s Jessie Diggins pushed through pain after bruising her ribs Saturday while competing in the skiathlon event. Diggins previously won the 2023 world title and four World Cup races in this event, according to the Olympics.
Other U.S. skiers competing in the event were Kendall Kramer, Hailey Swirbul and Novie McCabe.
Diggins was among the athletes marked “who to watch” in the event by the FIS Cross-Country World Cup. Alongside her were Sweden’s Ebba Andersson, Moa Ilar and Frida Karlsson; Norway’s Astrid Øyre Slind and Karoline Simpson-Larsen; and Austria’s Teresa Stadlober.
Who won the Olympics women’s 10km freestyle?
Frida Karlsson of Sweden finished with a 22:49.2 time, setting a blistering gold medal place for others to follow.
Teammate Ebba Andersson took silver, coming in 46.6 seconds behind.
Team USA took bronze, with Jessie Diggins narrowly missing a second-place finish with her 23:38.9 time, even with her ribs causing some issues after a fall earlier in the Games. Immediately after finishing, a spent Diggins laid on the snow-covered ground to rest and cool down.
After a teammate helped her up, Diggins appeared calm and collected about her finish.
How did the rest of Team USA do?
Novie McCabe finished with a 25:12.8 time, leading the rest of Team USA in the middle of the pack. All finished in the top half of a competition with more than 100 competitors.
Kendall Kramer ended her run at 25:34.9, beating out Hailey Swirbul’s 25:45.3 by less than a second in a race that can sometimes have racers several minutes apart from each other’s finish times.
What is the women’s cross-country ski 10km race?
The freestyle race, another event in the women’s cross-country skiing sport, spans across a 3.3-kilometer course in Italy’s Val di Fiemme. Athletes will ski around the track three times for a total of 6.2 miles, or 10 kilometers. There are 111 athletes competing in the event, so they start at different times, starting in 30-second intervals to race for the quickest time.