US Ski Legend Jessie Diggins Announces Retirement

Jessie Diggins, the phenom who transformed American cross-country skiing into a global powerhouse, just announced that the 2025–26 competitive season will be her last. She is the most decorated Nordic skier the U.S. has ever produced. Now she's giving racing one last rip at the Milan-Cortina Olympics this winter. While the Olympics will be the high point of the season, she'll see it through to the finals at Lake Placid.

Nordic skiing is a notoriously grueling sport. While Diggins built her career on digging deeper than almost anyone else, that's not all her legacy leaves behind.

“I hope I’m remembered not just for the pain cave and ability to suffer deeply for a team that I love,” Diggins said in a press release shared by U.S. Ski & Snowboard, “but for the joy, sense of fun on snow, heart-on-sleeve racing, deep vulnerability and openness that I’ve brought to everything I do.”

Beyond piling up medals, Diggins shifted the culture of Nordic skiing in the U.S. Her gold in the 2018 team sprint with Kikkan Randall broke the door down on a long-standing European domination in cross-country. Her three Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, 29 World Cup wins, and 79 podiums raised the ceiling for what American Nordic athletes believed was possible.

But results are only part of the energy she created. Diggins raced with an energy that grabbed attention far beyond traditional cross-country circles. She suffering look joyful, made teamwork look electric, and made the U.S. program feel like something fans could invest in. She cracked the sport open for new generations, especially young women, and made it feel fun, expressive, and emotional.

Inside the US Ski team, her impact was just as big. Sophie Goldschmidt, President and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, congratulated her on a “historic career” and praised the culture she helped build alongside coaches and teammates.

Now she gets one last go. One last world tour. One last Olympic Games. One last run through the circuits that shaped her.

Milano-Cortina will mark her final Olympic appearance before she wraps her career at the World Cup Finals in Lake Placid: a fitting home-turf sendoff for someone who helped bring American cross-country skiing to life.

For the U.S. ski community, this isn’t just the retirement of a champion. It’s the end of an era built on joy, effort, care, and showing up fully human in a sport that often demands otherwise.