Jessie Diggins fights injury to take bronze in race dominated by Sweden at Milan Cortina Games

The 34-year-old American finished 49.7 seconds behind a Swedish one-two, with Karlsson clocking 22 minutes, 49.2 seconds. Ebba Andersson was second, 46.6 seconds behind the leader.

Diggins fell in the opening race, the Skiathlon, and bruised her ribs. The injury hurt her following performance in the individual sprint where she was eliminated in the heats.

“I need a new body,” Diggins said. “Honestly, I think I’m the happiest, most grateful bronze medallist in the whole world. It’s been one heck of a painful week. Two days ago, I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”

She hugged her Swedish rivals before stepping onto the podium to chants of “Jessie! Jessie!” from a crowd that included a large traveling group of her family and friends.

“I just felt like I was skiing out of my body the whole time. And I was just trying to fight for every single second and to leave it all out there,” Diggins said. “I’ve been up at night with my ribs clicking in and out of place. It’s just really been hard.”

Sweden's women have now won seven out of the nine medals handed out in cross country skiing at Milan Cortina. Karlsson said she felt confident of victory after a strong hill climb before the finish, adding that she would celebrate with teammates later with a victory cake provided for podium performances by the team chefs.

“I was bursting with energy,” she said, giggling. “I felt the pain but it was after the finish line. The good feeling came on the last hill.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics