Her Gold Was Four Years Ago, but She Never Stopped Leading

At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Jessie Diggins won the first American medal of any kind in cross-country skiing since 1976.Credit...Kim Raff for The New York TimesPARK CITY, Utah — Gus Schumacher woke up on a late February morning four years ago and immediately noticed the sticky note his mother had left on his computer.

“Watch the race,” it said.

Schumacher knew which race his mother meant: the women’s team sprint at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The race had taken place while he slept, but Schumacher, an aspiring professional cross country skier, did as he was told. And in the dark in Alaska, as he watched Jessie Diggins come off the final turn in South Korea with a burst of…