Next up for Jessie Diggins: the Nordic skiing world championships in Norway

With the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics less than a year away, cross-country skier Jessie Diggins of Afton is having another memorable season.

She has won six World Cup races and leads the overall standings by 472 points with five races to go, closing in on a second World Cup title in a row. She also won in 2021.

Next up: the world championships in Trondheim, Norway, beginning Wednesday and continuing through March 9.

Diggins, 33, is coming off a win in the women’s 20km mass start freestyle race in Falun, Sweden, on Feb. 16.

“This was a win for the whole truck and the whole team and it’s an awesome momentum going into Trondheim,” she said after the race.

A three-time Olympic medalist, Diggins has won six medals at the world championships, including golds in the 2023 10km freestyle and the 2013 team sprint.

Although most of her career success has been in freestyle races, Diggins claimed her first individual World Cup victory in a classic race in a 15 km mass start event in Toblach, Italy, in December.

There are five individual races at worlds (7.5km classic; 20km skiathlon, which combines both styles; 10km classic; 50km freestyle and a freestyle sprint) and two team events (a classic sprint and 4x7.5km relay).

Diggins' first race is expected to the freestyle sprint on Thursday.

She isn’t the only Minnesotan competing in Trondheim. Zak Ketterson, 27, of Bloomington and Alayna Sonnesyn, 28, of Plymouth will be making their world championship debuts. Both are members of Team Birkie, which is based in Minneapolis.

A two-time pursuit state champion for Bloomington Jefferson, Ketterson has competed on the World Cup circuit since 2022. He was 14th in a classic sprint in Cogne, Italy, in January, his career-best finish in an individual World Cup race. In 2022, he skied the second leg on a winning World Cup mixed relay team, anchored by Diggins.

Sonnesyn was a junior national champion in 2013 and was part of state championship teams at Wayzata before skiing at the University of Vermont. She first competed in World Cup races in 2019, and a career-best 19th place finish in December in a freestyle sprint in Toblach, Italy.

Eduardo Arteaga, who lives in the Twin Cities after moving from his native Venezuela in 2002 to attend Hamline, is competing in his second world championships at age 47, representing Venezuela. He finished 78th in qualifying during Wednesday’s men’s 7.5-kilometer classic.

All times Central. Races will be streamed at skiandsnowboard.live.

Wednesday: Women’s 7.5km classic, 6:30 a.m.; men’s 7.5km classic, 8:30 a.m.

Thursday: Men’s and women’s freestyle sprint, 5:30 a.m.

Saturday: Men’s 20km skiathlon, 7 a.m.

Sunday: Women’s 20km skiathlon, 7 a.m.

March 4: Men’s 10km classic, 6 a.m.; women’s 10km classic, 8:30 a.m.

March 5: Men’s and women’s team sprint, 7:30 a.m.

March 6: Men’s 4x7.5km relay, 5:30 a.m.

March 7: Women’s 4x7.5km relay, 7 a.m.

March 8: Men’s 50km freestyle, 4:30 a.m.

March 9: Women’s 50km freestyle, 5:30 a.m.