Pyeongchang, South Korea • As she headed up the steepest, most grueling hill of her life in third place, Jessica Diggins thought to herself just winning an Olympic medal was no longer good enough.
Diggins dug deep, remembering all the years of training she had put in, and of all her teammates waiting for her at the finish line to bring home the United States’ first medal ever in women’s cross-country skiing — and then she let loose.
Diggins reached the peak of the hill in third place but sped past Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla on the last big, winding downhill.