Diggins, 34, who on Friday captured her third consecutive Crystal Globe as the overall champion of the World Cup season, will compete in her final race on Sunday in Lake Placid, New York. A celebratory lap with fans will follow.
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Diggins arrived on the big stage in the early 2010s after a promising junior career and lived up to expectations, winning the country’s first and still only Olympic cross-country gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. He has since added three Olympic medals, and his American teammates Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher won the first medals for American men in 50 years at this year’s Games in Milano Cortina, signaling a team-building legacy she is proud to leave behind.
As Diggins walks away, here’s a look at his career in photographs.
2008: The first days
Born in Minnesota, Diggins (pictured above in 2008) joined the cross-country ski team at Stillwater Area High School outside the Twin Cities at age 13 and quickly became a star, rising to the top of the state standings and winning big races. She was added to the US youth team in 2010.
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2011: first world championship
The first time Diggins got a taste of the biggest stage, he made the USA team for the 2011 world championships at age 19. She achieved top-30 finishes in the skiathlon and sprint events and was ninth as part of the 4X5 kilometer relay team with Kikkan Randall (with whom she would later make Olympic history), Holly Brooks and Elizabeth Stephen.
2012: First podiums in the World Cup
Diggins achieved his first podium in January 2012, midway through his first full season on the World Cup tour, a second-place finish in the team sprint with Randall. His first five career top-three finishes came in team events, including a relay in Gällivare, Sweden, in November 2012 with Randall, Brooks and Stephen (pictured). His first victory came in a team sprint with Randall the following month.
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2013: A world championship gold
At the end of his third full season on tour, Diggins went to the world championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, in February 2013 and won gold in the team sprint, again partnering with Randall. It was the first gold medal for the United States at a world cross-country championship and the first of seven world championship medals Diggins would win over the next 12 years.
2014: Olympic debut
At age 22, a year after his world championship triumph, Diggins competed in his first Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Despite winning team sprint gold with Randall at those worlds, the United States paired Sophie Caldwell with Randall at the Olympics because the race was in the classical style rather than Diggins’ stronger freestyle. Diggins’ best finish in Sochi was eighth in the skiathlon.
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2016: first individual victory
Her fifth full season on the circuit marked a breakthrough for Diggins, as she jumped from the top 25 overall to the top 10. She finished eighth overall in the World Cup and won her first individual race, a 5K as part of the week-long Tour de Ski in January.
2018: ‘Here comes Diggins!’
In the most indelible moment of her career, Diggins chased Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in the final meters to win gold with Randall in the team sprint at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. After achieving the same feat with her world championship victory five years earlier, it was also the first Olympic gold in US cross-country history. NBC host Chad Salmela’s enthusiastic call of “Here comes Diggins!” It has become one of the most emblematic in United States Olympic history.
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2019: A different kind of inspiration
A few months after that Olympic gold, Diggins revealed that she had been dealing with an eating disorder and sought help at a treatment center called “The Emily Program,” whose name and logo she began sporting on her gear the following season (like on her hat here, while celebrating a bronze medal at the 2019 world championships). His openness about his fight and advocacy for healthy eating and other causes has earned him many fans for more than what he accomplished on the racetrack.
2021: The best in the world
After the world championship and Olympic gold, Diggins had one big mountain left to climb in his career: winning the World Cup title. At the age of 29, in his tenth full season, he finally conquered the top circuit and also won the prestigious Tour de Ski for the first time (pictured).
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2022: another Olympic maximum
At her third Games in Beijing, Diggins added an individual silver and bronze to complete her Olympic medal haul. Bronze came in the sprint and silver in the marathon, 30 kilometers in his preferred freestyle technique on the last day of the Games.
2023: An individual world title
In Planica, Slovenia, Diggins bested two of her main rivals on the circuit, Sweden’s Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson, to win gold in the 10-kilometer freestyle, which remains the only individual world championship or Olympic gold in U.S. cross-country history.
2024: A World Cup race at home
Largely through Diggins’ efforts, the World Cup tour visited his home state of Minnesota in 2024, the first cross-country World Cup event in the U.S. in more than 20 years. She placed third in a 10K race in Minneapolis during a season in which she set personal bests in wins (six) and podiums (12) and captured her second crystal globe as the season’s overall champion.
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2025: Second consecutive World Cup title
Diggins, at 33, matched her career high with six wins and took home the crystal globe as overall champion for the second year in a row and third time overall. He also won for the first time in the classic technique in a 15-kilometer mass start race during the Tour de Ski.
2026: One more Olympic medal
Diggins fell and injured his ribs during his first Olympic race last month in Milan Cortina, but recovered to take an inspired bronze in the 10km race, falling to the ground in agony after the final push. He capped Diggins’ career with a fourth and final Olympic medal.
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2026: A world title for the road
On the final weekend of his racing career, Diggins claimed his third consecutive overall World Cup title and left the sport on top. His final tally of major achievements (with one race left on Sunday): four Olympic medals, seven world championship medals, four overall World Cup titles, 33 World Cup wins (31 individual), 90 World Cup podiums (79 individual).
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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