Man charged with trying to run Olympian Jessie Diggins off road
Authorities say a man accused of trying to run Olympic cross country skiing gold medalist Jessie Diggins off the road while she was roller-skiing in Minnesota has been charged with five misdemeanors.
The Pioneer Press reports that 37-year-old George Frost of St. Mary's Point is charged with assault, reckless driving, careless driving, disorderly conduct and nuisance on a public roadway.
Diggins, who was training with her high school coach near her hometown of Afton, said that after an SUV passed them, the driver — allegedly Frost — stopped in the road, then started driving next to them as they tried to pass.
She recounted in a blog post:
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"When we tried to ski by him, he kept driving on the right side of the road so that we were forced to the middle of the road.
"When we sped up, he sped up. When we slowed down, he came to a stop, blocking us from getting back to the side of the road. I knocked on the window a few times shouting that he was going to get us killed, and he flipped me the finger and turned the music up.
It was the most incredible display of aggressive bullying and 'I'm bigger than you and I'm in a SUV so I'm going to harass you' that I've ever seen in person."
Diggins said she wrote the SUV's license plate number in the dirt and contacted authorities.
A phone number for Frost could not be found.
MPR News contributed to this report.