Jessie Diggins, the U.S. cross-country star, showed she is not a one-Olympics wonder Tuesday when she captured the bronze medal in the women’s freestyle sprint at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Center.
Her medal was her second in two Games, but the first individual Olympic medal for an American woman in cross-country skiing. The unquestioned leader of the American men’s and women’s teams, Diggins, 30, collapsed on the snow at the finish then collected a series of bear hugs from her teammates. They wrapped her in an American flag as tears dripped down her glitter-covered cheeks, Diggins’s signature look in big races.