Jessie Diggins About The Holmenkollen 50km: "I Have Been Waiting My Entire Career For This Race"

Traditional skiing

Jessie Diggins About The Holmenkollen 50km: “I Have Been Waiting My Entire Career For This Race”

by Leandro Lutz • 10.03.2023

Member Article

The cross-country skiing World Cup heads to Holmenkollen in Norway this weekend after a thrilling World Championships in Slovenia. The women’s cross-country skiers will face the first-ever 50km World Cup race.

New this season is the same race distances for women and men in all World Cup events, as the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) decided in May. Women will start the first-ever 50km World Cup race at Holmenkollen this weekend.

Also Read: New Distances At The Cross-Country Skiing World Cup

Holmenkollen, Norway, is the place for this weekend’s cross-country skiing World Cup. The event begins on Saturday, March 11, with a 50km race in freestyle technique for the men, and on Sunday, March 12, the World Cup weekend ends with a mass start race in freestyle technique over the same distance for the women.

In a press release, the US Ski & Snowboard Association has named their female cross-country ski team for the upcoming World Cup in Holmenkollen. On the women’s side, the USA will start with four athletes.

For Jessie Diggins, the fresh winner of two medals at the World Championships in Planica, that’s a race that she has been waiting for a long time.

“I am so so excited to finally get to ski a 50km race,” says Diggins in the press release and continues:

“I have been waiting my entire career for this race, and we finally get a chance at Holmenkollen. I am just so excited to ski my heart out and finally get a chance to ski this incredible and iconic race.”

Rosie Brennan, who secured fifth place in the 30km classic race at the World Championships in Planica and is a Pro Tour athlete for Team Robinson Trentino, shares the same excitement.

“I couldn’t be more excited for the first women’s 50km on the World Cup this weekend. It definitely is a little intimidating – 50km is far, but it’s also a great challenge,” says Brennan and elaborates:

“I am really excited to have the journey out there with the whole women’s pack, and I think it will be a really exciting race. Equal distance has been such a cool experience to be a part of, and so has been showing all the young girls out there that we are as capable as all the boys. I can’t wait to give it a go this weekend!”