Jessie Diggins heads to her gold medal event with changes in place and the challenge fresh

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — Jessie Diggins has been making the case that the U.S. really isn't defending the Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing she won four years ago. The team sprint at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games was a freestyle, while Wednesday's team sprint at the Beijing Games is in the classic technique.

"Our sport is so crazy, because you only do that same Olympic race every eight years," she said. "In many ways, I've used that to take a lot of pressure off myself."

Still, expectations will be high for Diggins, who teamed with Kikkan Randall in the Pyeongchang team sprint to win the first-ever U.S. gold in cross-country skiing. Her partner for Wednesday's race, which starts with a semifinal round at 1:15 a.m. Central time, will be Rosie Brennan, the most accomplished member of the team after Diggins.

Brennan already combined with Diggins to make history at the Beijing Games. Diggins won bronze in the women's freestyle sprint last week, and Brennan was right behind her in fourth. That marked the first time the U.S. put two women into the finals at an Olympic sprint. The team event is on the same course as the freestyle sprint; each skier will go around three times, passing off at each lap, for a total of six laps.

In four races at the Beijing Games, Diggins has her bronze in the sprint, sixth-place finishes in the skiathlon and the 4x5k relay, and an eighth place in the 10k. Brennan, who also was part of the relay, was fourth in the sprint, 14^th in the skiathlon and 13^th in the 10k. They are the only American women with top-15 finishes in individual cross-country events at these Games.

The team sprint made Diggins one of the brightest stars of the 2018 Olympics. In the final meters of the race, she ran down Sweden's Stina Nilsson and thrust her ski over the finish line just ahead of her Swedish rival. That wild finish was replayed over and over, and it re-entered heavy rotation a few months ago as part of NBC's hype video for the Beijing Games.

Randall, Diggins' partner in that race, has retired. And Brennan, after a forgettable experience at the 2018 Olympics, is now a mainstay on the U.S. women's roster.

Brennan raced only the skiathlon in Pyeongchang and finished 58^th. She later found out she had mononucleosis, but she was dropped from the U.S. national team roster at the end of the season. After working her way back onto the team, Brennan has earned medals on the World Cup tour and currently is 15^th in the overall standings.

She has become stronger in sprint races, and she's particularly good on higher-altitude courses like the one in Zhangjiakou. Like Diggins, Brennan also has focused on polishing her classic technique, which showed in last week's 10k.

"I was actually really happy with my skiing [in the 10k]," said Brennan, who raced one of the classic legs in the relay. "I've really been working on my classic skiing. I've been feeling a lot better about it."

Chad Salmela of Duluth was the NBC analyst for the team sprint in 2018, creating a signature moment of those Games with his call of "Here comes Diggins! Here comes Diggins!'' He's announcing cross-country and biathlon races again this year, and he said Diggins has looked "awesome" thus far.

But Salmela said the team sprint is loaded with powerful twosomes. He noted that in 2018, Diggins and Randall — both outstanding freestyle skiers — came into the Olympic team event with loads of confidence.

The depth of the competition in Zhangjiakou, and the fact that the race is in the classic technique, means everything will have to go right for the Americans to grab a medal, he said.

"It absolutely matters that it's classic," Salmela added. "It doesn't mean they can't do it. But they're going to need awesome skis. They're going to need to be relaxed and execute perfectly."

Wednesday's race marks only the fifth time the women's team sprint has been raced at the Olympics. The U.S., Sweden, Norway and Germany have each won a gold medal, and Sweden's four total medals are the most by any nation.