JESSIE DIGGINS CAPS HISTORIC WEEKEND FOR U.S. WINTER SPORTS ATHLETES

Jessie Diggins won a World Cup cross-country skiing race to complete one of the best weekends across the board in recent U.S. winter sports history.

Diggins crushed a 10km freestyle field in Östersund, Sweden, prevailing by 23 seconds for a second consecutive weekend to extend her World Cup overall standings lead.

"Today was for the boys," Diggins said, referencing countrymen J.C. Schoonmaker and Ben Ogden placing third and fourth in Saturday's sprint, each's best World Cup finish. "I was incredibly motivated and so fired up and so overwhelmed with the joy and passion of sport."

It marked Diggins' American record-extending 16th FIS World Cup cross-country skiing win and 50th podium in individual events.

And it added to a memorable three-day stretch for Americans in Winter Olympic sports.

Since Friday, Americans also won World Cup competitions in Alpine skiing (Mikaela Shiffrin), freestyle skiing (Jaelin Kauf, Alex Ferreira), speed skating (Erin Jackson, Jordan Stolz), short track (Kristen Santos-Griswold twice), bobsled (Kaysha Love) and luge (Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander in doubles).

In figure skating, Ilia Malinin and ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates won titles at the Grand Prix Final, the second-biggest annual event in that sport.

The U.S. also won an eighth consecutive Para Hockey Cup, going 5-0 against Canada, China and Czechia over the past week.

The cross-country skiing World Cup continues next weekend in Trondheim, Norway.

2023-12-10T12:57:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd