Trail runs, gardening and hiking in Patagonia: Jessie Diggins returns to World Cup scene a "different, stronger version of myself" 

Jessie Diggins isn't the only member of her family already eyeing Milano Cortina 2026.

"My grandma's training on the stair stepper at her gym in Arizona so that she can be ready to hike up the hills and cheer for me," cross-country skiing's reigning overall World Cup champion told reporters earlier this week, breaking into a smile.

"It's a family affair," added Diggins about her grandmother, Betty, who previously made trips to the Olympic Winter Games in 2014 and 2018. "And that's very motivating for me."

Motivation is at an all-time high for the 33-year-old Diggins, who said in a video call from Ruka, Finland, that she remembers being in the exact same room 12 months ago to tell reporters she had relapsed during the summer of 2023 with her disordered eating.

"I feel like I'm actually sitting here as a different, stronger version of myself," the American said Monday (25 November).

"I feel like being vulnerable has actually let me connect in a very different way with a lot of people in this community. I've had to learn a lot and rebuild myself - and my mind. And I feel like I'm coming back in a much stronger place."

The 2024-25 World Cup season gets underway in Ruka on Friday (29 November). This season's Tour de Ski is set to stop off at the Olympic cross-country venue in Val di Fiemme, Italy, in early January, and the Nordic World Ski Championships will be held in Trondheim, Norway, 26 February-9 March.

• Jessie Diggins: "I"m taking this season one day at a time" - Nov. 2023
• Previewing the 2024-25 cross-country World Cup season

Jessie Diggins: "Recovery is not a linear process"

Diggins is no stranger to eating disorders, having faced bulimia as a teenager and - since 2019 - having been a spokesperson for the Emily Program, a non-profit that provides treatment for them.

After facing down many of her demons in late summer and early fall last year, she went on to have a season for the ages, claiming the aforementioned overall World Cup, as well as winning her first individual world title, in the 10km freestyle.

But Diggins is careful to point out that "recovery is not a linear process" and her results a year ago did not come from some sort of bounce-back effect: "You don't get this checkmark, like, 'You're healed, you're done!'" Diggins shared. "This is something where you're going to be working on it for a long time. I'm probably going to be working on this maybe for the rest of my life."

Her stance as an advocate is something that she says she has grown more comfortable with as she's gotten older and shared her own struggles more openly.

She says it's common now for her to be approached by all sorts of people - athletes, coaches, parents - who thank her for said openness: "It's been a year of people reaching out in various ways," she said. "And that was the most touching thing that could have ever come out of sharing some really hard parts of my life."

Diggins reconnected with balance after a busy season, too: She went on a long-delayed honeymoon with her husband, Wade, hiking in Patagonia in South America; took on gardening (cucumbers are a favourite); and has rediscovered a love for trail-running.

"I think I just rediscovered how important it is for me to be outside, to reset and relax and just reconnect and ground myself," she said.

Motivated Diggins welcomes back Therese Johaug

"Ninety-nine percent of my goals have nothing to do with the outcome of races," Diggins told reporters when they asked about her expectations for the penultimate season ahead of the 2026 Games, especially having claimed the overall World Cup last year.

"When you achieve something, then you have more eyes on you and that does create pressure," she said. "But at the same time, I have to make sure I detangle my self-worth and who I am and how I show up for my team from the results and the pressure and what maybe other people might expect of me.

"So all I have to expect is that I show up ready to give 100 percent of myself."

After a standout 2023-24, Diggins said her biggest challenge in the off-season wasn't finding motivation to start back up again, it was her mandated two-week break from any of her extensive training regimen.

"It was actually harder to stop," she admitted, laughing. "That was probably a good sign that I'm really not done mentally. ... [When I] started training again, I was like, 'I'm so ready. I'm psyched. I want to do this.' And I was really motivated in setting process goals for the new season."

There are external goals, too, Diggins admitted: "I think the ultimate holy grail would be to be part of the four by seven and a half relay [at] worlds to get a medal. That's something that we've been working towards for so, so long.

Team USA has never won an Olympic or World Championships relay medal.

Diggins spent some of her pre-season on snow in New Zealand, alongside teammate Julia Kern and coach Jason Cork. She welcomes the return of four-time Olympic champion Therese Johaug of Norway, the 36-year-old who retired after a glittering Beijing 2022 - and giving birth to her first child in May of 2023.

"I think it's really, really cool, especially for young girls to see [that] professional women's sport be done in the way that works for you and your life," Diggins said of the mesasge Johaug's return sends.

"So to retire, start a family, come back, or for people to race later into their 30s... I think it's so cool for young girls to see that you can make sport your own."

Skiing "is not who you are" - Diggins

The cross-country World Cup season can be especially gruelling for non-European athletes, spending as many as four to five months on the road, away from home.

Diggins said she's learned to find her creature comforts: She packs American gum and toothpaste ("I know, it's kind of weird"); her signature glitter (biodegradable, says the environmentally-minded Diggins); and a sunlight lamp, which teammate Rosie Brennan first suggested.

"I stare at it every morning over breakfast," Diggins said of the lamp, especially helpful in places like northern Finland, where winter daylight number only five or six hours of sun.

Over a year removed from her relapse and months after she considered retiring at the completion of her "home" World Cup in Minneapolis (the first in the U.S. in over 20 years), Diggins said her movitation is unsurprising in a way: "One of the things that keeps me coming back is that I feel like I'm never done learning and I'm never done trying to improve," she said.

Asked what Diggins would tell her younger self about the "circus" of international cross-country skiing, she didn't hesitate: Hers is a learned message of self-worth - always looking inside in a sport that rewards the external.

"It's important to remember [to] detangle your self-worth and emotional well-being from the actual racing," she said. "It's a really super healthy thing to practice. [And] one data point is not a trend - [skiing] is not who you are, not everything about who you are."