Afton’s Jessie Diggins won a silver medal with Julia Kern in the team sprint race Wednesday at the cross-country skiing world championships in Trondheim, Norway.
Diggins and Kern finished in 20 minutes, 54.53 seconds — 2.9 seconds behind Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling, the silver medalists in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
This is the seventh world championship medal overall for Diggins, a three-time Olympic medalist and the most decorated American cross-country skier.
But it’s her first medal at these world championships, which got off to a disappointing start for the leader in the World Cup standings.
“I had to keep believing. I knew my fitness was there. I knew my body was there. You just need everything to come together at a championship, and I think it makes it even sweeter that it did come together on a team day,” Diggins told reporters in Norway. “It was a big test of faith and belief.”
Diggins, 33, didn’t advance past the quarterfinals of the individual freestyle sprint race last week and finished 13th in the 20-kilometer skiathlon Sunday.
Sweden was favored in Wednesday’s classic-style race on a 1.4km course. Each skier did the loop three times, switching off each lap.
Diggins sat out Tuesday’s 10km classic race. She had won the 10km freestyle race at the last world championships two years ago. But she was able to stick with Sundling on their laps Wednesday until Sweden pulled away on the fifth lap.
