Jessie Diggins announce retirement after the season

Cross Country athlete Jessie Diggins, who is the most decorated Cross-Country skier in U.S. history, has formally announced that she will retire from competitive Cross-Country skiing at the conclusion of the 2025/26 season.

Diggins’ farewell season is scheduled to begin with the opening World Cup round in Ruka, Finland, on 28 November 2025, continue through the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, and conclude at the Finals in Lake Placid, USA, from 19–22 March 2026.

Diggins who has earned three Olympic medals—including Team USA’s first-ever Olympic gold in Cross-Country skiing at PyeongChang 2018 with teammate Kikkan Randall—alongside seven World Championship medals, 29 individual World Cup victories and 79 podiums. She is also a two-time Tour de Ski champion and has secured three Distance and three Overall FIS Crystal Globes.

Renowned for her uncompromising work ethic and ability to push to the absolute limit, Diggins has become an icon both on and off the tracks. Beyond her competitive success, she has been widely recognized for her commitment to athlete advocacy, sportsmanship, and efforts to strengthen and inspire the global Cross-Country skiing community.

Diggins’s Historic Career By the Numbers

World Cup

• Starts: 358

• Podiums: 79

• Victories: 29

Olympics

• Games: 3 (Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022)

• Starts: 16

• Medals: 3 (gold, team sprint, PyeongChang 2018; silver, 30k freestyle & bronze, sprint, Beijing 2022)

World Championships

• World Championships: 8

• Starts: 34

• Medals: 7

Records Set

• Most decorated American Cross Country skier in history 

• First American to win an Olympic gold medal in cross country skiing, alongside Kikkan Randall in the team sprint (2018)

• First American to win an individual Olympic medal in a cross country sprint race (2022)

• First American to win an individual World Championships gold medal (10k skate, Planica, Slovenia, 2023)

• Set a record for overall FIS Crystal Globe victories (three: 2021, 2023, 2025)

  • In 2021, Diggins became the first American woman to win an overall title and the first American to win the globe since Bill Koch in 1982

  • Only non-European to have won the overall FIS Crystal Globe

• Holds the U.S. record for FIS World Cup victories (29)

• First American to win the overall FIS Tour de Ski trophy (2021, 2024)

• Awarded the Holmenkollen Medal, the highest Norwegian honor in skiing, becoming the first American ever to receive the distinction (2024)