Jessie Diggins Wins Bronze w/ Badly Bruised Ribs

OK, well, speaking of bronze medals, I want to talk about one of my favorite things that I saw today, and I know you were all over this too, cause you posted a bunch of screenshots from right after the race ended.

But, uh, Jessie Diggins just won her 4th Olympic medal in her career.

This is now, uh, 3 consecutive Olympics that she has medaled.

We talked.

We talked about this yesterday, we thought it was probably unlikely that she was gonna win a medal here, partly because we know she was dealing with those bruised ribs and partly just thinking this might not be her best, uh, event with a chance.

Well, I think we were wrong on that one.

it was a very, very fun race.

It was the interval start, which is a little different from some of the mass start events that we've been watching on cross country.

Um, and so it's a little bit tougher to follow because it's not like the person who crosses the finish line first wins gold.

They, they start at different times and they, they cross.

But anyway, She was just, after she finished the race, uh, I think they, they were pretty sure she was going to be bronze, but they had to wait for a couple more people to finish and just make sure.

And then there were a bunch of people still on the course who at a certain point, it was obvious she had, she had won it.

We were, it was just a formality and we were waiting for the final time, but she just collapsed beyond the finish line, which we know is common in cross country, and she was just like screaming in pain.

And you could just feel how injured she was and how much that race took out of her, and what it took for her to get to the finish line in 3rd place.

Uh, and that was just like, it like got to me in a way, just like seeing how hard some of these athletes push themselves.

That is a sport that's known for it.

I think she's talked about that phrase, the pain cave.

Which is like the place that she gets to, um, and, and we talked about her with Michael Rosenberg and one of our preview episodes, just how she's very sort of self-driven and wants to, um, you know, beat the clock and do her thing, but not necessarily worried about, uh, or doesn't love the idea of like beating the other athletes, that idea that like, for me to win, you have to lose.

But just seeing like how far she took it , uh, in this event, I was just so impressed by her, and she's, she's the greatest American cross country skier ever, and this is just going to be such a huge, huge part of her legacy to now have medals in 3 straight Olympics and 4 of them total.

Yeah, I, I thought you're gonna say, in fact, even before she crossed the finish line, that final like stretch, she was digging so hard.

It was just, it was amazing to watch.

You could see the effort on her face and obviously, you know, it all kind of came, came flowing out at the end, but she just, she was really striving and like, it was just this incredible image of.

Her giving, like, you know, I think the phrase 110% is really overused, but in this case, no, it was like, literally like 150% of her maximum effort.

It was just, like, unbelievable to watch.

Yeah, and then she, she falls to the finish line.

She's wailing, she's obviously in , in immense pain.

There was, I'm following along, you know, I, I'm like, In some of our, uh, our chat, you know, channels here in on Slack free plug for them, uh, with our co-workers, and somebody said, um, you know, like, she should go to like a hospital.

I mean , it looked, it looked really bad, um, and I was shocked.

It was maybe 3 to 5 minutes later, she's on her feet, she's smiling.

It seemed like maybe like there had to have been some cramping, I would speculate, um, because Uh, a, a teammate came over and immediately was like, it was, it was odd to see that there was not any, like, medical personnel coming to her.

I wonder if that was, like, a rule because it's like, the race is still going on and nobody else is allowed in the area, but, like, a teammate came over and and I I can't recall her name, but came over and um unclipped her from her skis, took her poles, you know, and then was, like, massaging her calves and, um, yeah, just like this really Uh, you know, indelible image, I think will be like, you know, part of her highlight career highlight reel, part of any Olympic highlight reel going forward, just like this really incredible image of, of the effort it takes to win a medal, um, you know, even we talk about, you know, uh , people who, who are excited to win silver and bronze, and like, yeah, that, that shows you, you know, that she was really giving it all to go for that, that bronze, even though she was out of contention for the gold.

Yeah, and, and you mentioned how quickly she went from just like being in agony to then being very happy.

I saw she gave a quote to uh NBC's Nicole Auerbach, who's been the uh reporter on the scene at the cross country, and she described herself as the happiest bronze medalist in the history of the world.

So, great for her that that's her attitude.

She did not look like it, uh, in the immediate aftermath of the race.

Maybe she didn't know that she had won it yet.

Um, let's, let's, I.

I also do want to mention the winners here.

Uh, so, uh, Sweden took gold and silver.

Um, and remember we talked about Sweden having a podium sweep, and I believe it was the skiathlon, uh, that, that Sweden had that 123 finish, and it's Frida Carlsson, who won gold in the skiathlon and also took gold here.

So very impressive, uh, for her already to have 2 gold medals, these Olympics.

She won by a huge margin.

She won by more, more than 46 seconds.

Over, uh, second place.

And then 23, 4th was a lot closer.

I think it was like, uh, 3.1 seconds separating the, uh, silver medalist from Jesse Diggins, and then, uh, Diggins had 3.3 seconds of cushion, uh, ahead of, uh, Norway.

Norwegian, uh, skiers finished 4th, 5th, and 6th.

so Diggins held them all off the podium.

Um, but yeah, just, uh, a fun race.

We're gonna see the same race for the men.

tomorrow.

So if you missed it, um, you know, you can check that one out tomorrow.

But , uh, yeah, I mean, it'll be hard for that race to have the same drama that it did today, especially knowing that Johannes Clabo is going to be in it.

And so maybe there won't be any drama at all.

But, uh, but yeah, Diggins, that was like one of my favorite Team USA performances we've seen so far at these Olympics.

Absolutely.

And you mentioned the Swedes.

Sweden has now won 7 out of the 9 medals in women's cross country awarded so far .

So great, uh, great showing for them at this point.

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The other big moment of the day was the halfpipe.

I mean, this was, this was a really a, a headline stealing event.

Uh, everybody's going in expecting Chloe Kim to win her, her 3rd straight medal, and, uh, she came really close, ended up getting silver.

Um, it was, you mentioned the snow falling.

It had an effect in the competition.

Uh, the announcers kept talking about this, how, um, it was snowing, like, you know, at, at, at certain points, it, it would stop and start.

So it was pretty light.

In the final run, it was quite heavy.

And, um, that's a factor for, for two reasons.

First of all, uh, the snow will gather at the bottom of the pipe.

And so, uh, you know, it'll fall that, it won't cling to the walls, so the walls are too vertical, but it will all gather at the bottom of the pipe.

And then that affects your speed and then going through that transition zone up to the next wall.

Um, so you saw a lot of athletes struggling with this, failing to get the speed they're used to, under rotating on their turns and falling.

There were a lot, a lot of falls, um, partially because of that, partially because people are just, you know, they're going all out trying to win that medal.

Um, the way they actually clear that snow in the bottom is funny, they get this, this, uh, like V formation of folks on skis who are, who are shuffling down and kind of, you know, shoveling the snow, uh, with their own skis.

It's an interesting, uh, visual.

Yeah, before you get to the, um, before you get to the results, I just want to also say, I think the snow had an interesting effect on the visibility.

They mentioned this because this was, uh, again, this was a nighttime event with like huge stadium lights.

And so I think it's a little different than like snow coming down during the daytime.

These like really bright lights are reflecting off of the snow and just makes for like an interesting glare and, and just kind of a different visibility than they're probably.

Used to in major competition.

I'm sure they all practice in all kinds of conditions and, and, uh, you know, I doubt you're gonna find any athlete in the Winter Olympics using snow as an excuse, uh, for the conditions being a little bit different.

I'm sure they've all done it.

Uh, but I just think that isn't, you know, worth mentioning that, uh, you know, anything that can throw anyone off, that's just like a little bit different from maybe the like perfect conditions that you expect.

Um, but I thought being at night, uh, with all of that glare, that was interesting also.

Yeah, they likened it on the broadcast to driving in the snow, driving in heavy snow, where it's actually, they said like actually the lighting probably wasn't too much of a factor.

They were, they were joking that it was lit better than NFL stadium, like, it seemed really bright in there, and the issue really just like, is like those particles of snow in your vision , especially when you're spinning, um, you know, and, and it's easy to get, you know, you, you can't have that clear line of sight down to your landing zone because there's all this stuff, you know, in the way, but uh, yeah, for whatever reason, it, it did seem to affect a lot of people.