Jessie Diggins
I was going to write a post about my favorite athlete in the 2018 Winter Olympics yesterday.She'd put in some absolutely mind-boggling cross-country performances, going so hard that I expected her rib cage to burst and her heart to explode. She seemed to have an unbendable will, and had performed incredibly well, even though she had two fifths and a sixth in her events so far. But she had gotten everything, absolutely everything, out of herself.
And she was an underdog, since the U.S. generally is weak in the Winter Olympics, with the exception of the 42Olympic events. And my whole life, I've always identified with underdogs.
Then she won a gold medal yesterday.
So I really wanted to write about her yesterday, but didn't want to put up a spoiler for people who record everything (like me).
The event was the Women's Cross Country Team Sprint, and her name is Jessie Diggins.
I was watching this race, and I was tearing up as she willed her redlined body to make one last sprint, a sprint so powerful that it should have been impossible.
The call of the race was incredible as well. Here's a link with a video of the last thirty seconds or so (I tried to find the entire race, but of course NBC is ass and I couldn't find it):
Women's Cross Country Team Sprint Finish
I've basically binge watched cross country skiing and biathlon during the Olympics, and I swear I'm going to start watching the world championships every year now. Not sure how, because our coverage of these events in the U.S. is nonexistent, but I'm going to figure it out.
<< Home