TESERO, Italy — Jessie Diggins of the United States battled through injury to claim bronze Thursday in the women’s 10‑kilometer interval start, a race dominated by Sweden’s Frida Karlsson as she won her second gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
Diggins, 34, racing in her final season, collapsed to the ground, shouting out in pain after finishing the freestyle race at the Milan Cortina Games and adding to her gold, silver and bronze career medal tally.
She finished 49.7 seconds behind a Swedish 1-2, with Karlsson clocking 22 minutes, 49.2 seconds. Ebba Andersson was second, 46.6 seconds behind the leader.
Diggins fell in the opening race, the skiathlon, and bruised her ribs, an injury that hampered her next performance in the individual sprint, where she was eliminated in the heats.
“I need a new body,” Diggins said. “Honestly, I think I’m the happiest, most grateful bronze medalist in the whole world. It’s been one heck of a painful week. Two days ago, I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this.'”
She hugged her Swedish rivals before stepping onto the podium to chants of “Jessie! Jessie!” from a crowd that included a large traveling group of her family and friends.
“I just felt like I was skiing out of my body the whole time. And I was just trying to fight for every single second and to leave it all out there,” Diggins said. “I’ve been up at night with my ribs clicking in and out of place. It’s just really been hard.”
Sweden’s women have now won seven of the nine medals handed out in cross-country skiing at Milan Cortina. Karlsson said she felt confident of victory after a strong hill climb before the finish, adding that she would celebrate with teammates later with a victory cake provided for podium performances by the team chefs.
“I was bursting with energy,” Karlsson said, giggling. “I felt the pain, but it was after the finish line. The good feeling came on the last hill.”
