Story byIn final Olympic race, Jessie Diggins says goodbye her way, with an all-out effortJacob WhiteheadSun, February 22, 2026 at 6:01 PM UTC·10 min readTESERO, Italy — The race marshal has just cried out his five-minute warning, but Jessie Diggins appears lost to it all. There is a ritual to these moments, to this preparation, and in her final Olympic appearance, the USA’s most decorated cross-country skier of all time will remain unhurried. Her universe is defined by the particulars. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementShe still wears a hefty plaster on her ribs, the blueing medal of a crash that took place just two kilometers into her Olympics on the opening Saturday. “It’s honestly caught me off guard with how much it hurts to ski right now,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. Just five days later, Diggins won bronze, her fourth Olympic medal overall, in the 10-kilometer freestyle. Her red headband is already on, bearing, as always, the logo of The Emily Program — the eating disorder charity that helped her through the most difficult moments of her career, which she now wears as a reminder, not to herself but others. Under Olympic rules, she will have to take the headband off before the race starts.
