Tour de Ski winner Jessie Diggins suffered from side problems in the last races.
of the United States Jessie Diggins won the cross-country Tour de Ski women’s race over the weekend. The first place in the tour is the second of the 32-year-old athlete’s career.
For Diggins, however, the final races of the tour were a pain. He fell to third in the last race, the 20 km traditional co-start race in Davos, Switzerland.
He immediately held his leg and cried out in pain. Diggins, who injured his hip, came to the finish and was a fine third. In addition to the hip problem, he suffered from ribs. However, it is unclear whether the pains in question came from the same fall.
Diggins said on his Instagram account that he had pain when pushing flat and breathing.
Diggins was sixth in the final climb of Alpe Cermis, which ends the tour. Norway came second in the overall competition Heidi Weng caught him a lot in the last stage, but Diggins still managed to keep his first place by half a minute.
Urheilu’s cross-country expert Aino-Kaisa Saarinen finds Diggins’ tenacity incredible.
– There was no health risk. You have to have a high pain threshold to be able to do that. He has also been in good shape. The main thing is that he can rest a lot now, Saarinen commented on Diggins.
Former top skier Saarinen reminds that top skiers have been able to do miracles with a broken side before.
In the sprint at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Petra Majdic drifted into a three-meter ditch during the warm-up run. He suffered several broken ribs and a ruptured lung.
Nevertheless, the skiing star persevered in sprinting for Olympic bronze.
“Let’s tape and patch”
According to Saarinen, Diggins did not outwardly show that he was suffering from some kind of injury. On the other hand, he reminds us that this is an athlete whose skiing seems really difficult when he is tired.
– The appreciation rose higher when you can ski the whole Tour with such pains and still win.
Saarinen, who won the individual world championship in 2009, recalls that he has not suffered from similar pain conditions in the Games.
– There is no such thing as having to compete half fit. There have been injuries, but they have come during the training season. If there is a main goal for the season and something happens, everything will be done for it. Let’s tape and patch. We hope for the best and fear the worst.