MILAN — U.S. cross-country skier Jessie Diggins failed to make it out of the women’s sprint classic quarterfinals at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Tuesday, the same event she medaled in at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Diggins finished fourth out of six racers in her quarterfinal heat with a time of 3:59.33. In the sprint classic, the top two finishers from five different quarterfinal rounds advance to the semifinals, plus two ‘lucky losers’ with the fastest time that didn’t already qualify. American Julia Kern was one of the ‘lucky losers’ to advance.
The result ended Diggins’ streak of finishing in the top 10 in all six women’s events in both the 2018 and 2022 Games. She won a bronze medal in the sprint classic 2022 to become the first American to win an individual sprint medal. Diggins finished in eighth place in the women’s 10km + 10km skiathlon on Saturday, her first event of the 2026 Winter Olympics, but suffered a ‘big crash’ that had some lingering effects heading into Tuesday.
Diggins told NBC that she bruised her ribs during Saturday’s crash, which made it difficult to breathe and ‘really hurt’ during the sprint qualifying rounds. She recorded a time of 3:46.67 in the qualifying round.
Watch Winter Olympics on Peacock
CHASING GOLD: Why Jessie Diggins keeps Olympic medals packed away and values joy above all
On Saturday, Diggins got caught in some downhill traffic on the first lap and fell alongside several other racers. Diggins immediately returned to her skis and continued on, but the crash cost her valuable time.
Diggins, the most decorated cross-country skier in U.S. history, will have more opportunities to add to her hardware. She’ll be back on the snow Tuesday for the women’s cross-country skiing 10km freestyle.
Diggins won Team USA’s first Olympic gold in cross country in team sprint alongside Kikkan Randall at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Diggins won a silver in the 30k freestyle at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.