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3 weeks ago
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Jessie Diggins capped one of the most demanding stretches in cross-country skiing on Sunday by winning the Tour de Ski for the third time, a result that further solidifies her status as an Olympic medal favorite heading into what she has already announced will be her final season.
Diggins, the 34-year-old American from Afton, Minnesota, clinched the overall title after the sixth and final stage of the Tour de Ski, an eight-day, multi-race series staged across Italy and modeled after cycling’s Tour de France. The competition tests skiers across sprint and distance races, classic and freestyle techniques, and concludes with the sport’s most notorious challenge: a steep, lung-burning climb up Alpe Cermis.
Entering Sunday’s final 10km stage with a 79-second lead, Diggins skied conservatively and finished second on the day, just under nine seconds behind Norway’s Karoline Simpson-Larsen. That was more than enough to secure the overall title with a cumulative time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 26.1 seconds in Val di Fiemme, the venue that will host Olympic cross-country skiing next month at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.
Diggins finished 2min 17.7sec ahead of Austria’s Teresa Stadlober in the overall standings, with Norway’s Heidi Weng third, 2:31.6 back.
The victory marked Diggins’ third Tour de Ski title, adding to her wins in 2021 and 2023. In the 20-year history of the event, she remains the only American – male or female – to stand atop the overall podium. Her additional third-place finishes in 2019 and last year further underscore her dominance in one of the sport’s most grueling competitions.
The Tour de Ski is widely regarded as a definitive measure of all-around excellence in cross-country skiing, rewarding athletes who can endure repeated high-level racing with little recovery while adapting to changing courses and techniques. Diggins’ performance across the week highlighted her consistency, tactical discipline and endurance, qualities that have defined her career.
In November, Diggins announced that the 2025–26 season would be her last on the World Cup circuit, setting the stage for a farewell campaign that now includes one of the strongest results of her career. With three stage wins this season and multiple podium finishes, she enters the Olympic period in peak form.
On the men’s side, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won the Tour de Ski for a record fifth time. Klæbo finished 12th in the final stage but comfortably defended his overall lead, finishing ahead of compatriots Mattis Stenshagen and Harald Østberg Amundsen in an all-Norwegian podium.
