Jessie Diggins prioritising mental health after eating disorder setback: 'I'm taking this season one day at a time'
The 2018 Olympic champ captured her first individual world title last year in the 10km, but revealed in September that she was facing some familiar demons. 'I'm not done reaching my potential,' she says.
Cross-Country Skiing
Olympic champion cross-country skier Jessie Diggins is taking this season "one day at a time and one race at a time" after recently revealing she was struggling with her eating disorder again.
A reigning world champion in the 10km freestyle, the 32-year-old American shared an emotional post with fans in September to say after 12 years of health she was facing challenges around her disordered eating.
On Monday (20 November), she told reporters on a conference call that she was on the road to recovery, but would prioritise "my mental and physical health" in the coming season: "When I do have a race bib on, it's because me and my team have agreed [on it]... when I do race, it's because I want to."
Diggins famously paired up with Kikkan Randall at PyeongChang 2018 to win the heart-stopping team sprint, and she added two more Olympic medals at Beijing 2022 in the 30km freestyle (silver) and individual sprint (bronze).
Last season, she won her first individual world title in the 10km freestyle, helping her to finish in second place in the World Cup standings. (It was also the first individual title for any American cross-country skier.)
"Mental health is physical health; eating disorders are not a behavoiral choice," Diggins said on a call from Finland, where she is training with the U.S. team. "I think it can be really challenging and scary subject, and it makes me feel really vulnerable putting it out there because everyone knows something really big about me. But at the same time, I'm trying to change the culture of sport for the better."
Her September post on social revealed that Diggins was "putting too much pressure on myself," she wrote. She said Monday the response she got from her post was inspiring, especially from other athletes: "So many athletes from other countries reached out," she said.
"It was really cool to see that all around the world we have different languages and different cultures and different ideas about training, but understanding when someone's in pain and when they need a hand... that's pretty universal."
Jessie Diggins: 'I'm trying to reach my potential in this sport'
A six-time world medallist, Diggins has been to three Olympic Games and has finished on the World Cup season podium four times in her career, including an overall win in 2021. She was second last year to Norway's Tiril Udnes Weng.
But as Diggins struggled in the off-season away from the sport, she said she considered walking away and retiring prior to making the announcement she did in September.
"I thought, 'I could just be done and I don't have to put my body through all this anymore,'" Diggins said. "But when I think about the things that I haven't done yet that I'm excited about, it's usually something very personal... I always have something I'm working on and I feel like I'm not done [with that process].
"I'm trying to reach my potential in this sport. I feel like I'm still growing every year and learning and working on things."
A bright spot Diggins is looking forward to is the first FIS Cross-Country World Cup on U.S. soil in over 20 years - and it's taking place in her own backyard, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, in February.
"After [we] won the Olympics in 2018, my agent said, 'You can ask for anything you want right now. Do you want to go to Disney World? Do you want a car?'" Diggins remembered. "I said, 'I want a World Cup in Minneapolis. That's the only thing I want.'"
The area was meant to host said World Cup in 2020 before it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Diggins said she has learned to step back from her involvement with the planning of the event as part of her process of better taking care of herself as an athlete - and a person.
"I've been working myself too hard for too long, and I realized that I just couldn't do everything that I wanted to do," Diggins said aout the World Cup. "It's been an important learning and thinking for me: Sometimes you can let go of something and it will still be okay."
Will Jessie Diggins ski at Milano-Cortina 2026?
Diggins was joined by fellow Americans Rosie Brennan and Julie Kern in the top 10 World Cup season standings from last year, while the U.S. continues to try to push up against the sport's traditional powerhouses like Norway, Sweden, Finland and other European nations.
"When I first made the U.S. team, I remember finding out that our entire team budget was what the Norwegians [spent on] their wax budget," Diggins said with a smile. "We are still working on getting things that we really need... I was really lucky to be part of a strong team [at that time]. Now I'm more of the 'team mom' than the baby, but it's really cool to see how far the sport has come [in the U.S]."
As she focuses inward this year, there is still the looming Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, which - should she find some of the success she has over the last few years - Diggins would most certainly factor into the podium conversation for.
Is that on her mind whatsoever?
"I am taking this quite literally one day at a time, but thinking about the 2026 Olympics is exciting, yes," she said. "It's an Olympics where my parents in law could come and see me race which would be amazing [especially] after this last Olympics we couldn't have family watch.
"And I would really love to spend Valentine's Day in the Olympic Village with my husband again. It's been a while since we've gotten to do that. That sounds shallow [laughs], but sometimes it's the little things that gets you fired up.
"It would be really cool to go to a fourth Olympic Games," she added. "I think that's another reason to take care of myself so that I can have the chance to do that. I don't have to do that, but I want to give myself the option and give my body that option."