Retired from Nordic skiing, legend Jessie Diggins tackles the Superior 100 mile race
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Twenty-five hours after taking off from Gooseberry State Park, retired Olympic cross-country skiier Jessie Diggins was the first woman to cross the finish line in the Superior 100 race.
Diggins placed fifth overall in the grueling 100-mile race along the Superior Hiking Trail. Tyler Morey, 38, of Plymouth and the co-founder of Minneapolis-based North Coast Running, finished first overall with a time of just under 20 hours.
“And we’re off!”
That’s what Diggins, the most acclaimed cross country skier in U.S. history posted Friday morning on Instagram as she and her support crew donned homemade tie dyed t-shirts. Diggins and about 250 other runners took off at 8 a.m.
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“Superior100 is a go — with a solid crew and of course glitter and homemade tie dye shirts,” Diggins posted. “See you in 100 miles!”
Diggins smiled and moved quickly through early checkpoints in the race. But she slowed near the end. After crossing the finish line, she laid down shivering for a few minutes to recover. Her support crew covered her with a blanket.
The rugged course followed the Superior Hiking Trail on the rocky ridgeline along Lake Superior.
This is Diggins’ third trail race since she retired from professional skiing earlier this year, and it's her first ever 100-miler. But race director John Storkamp expected her to do well.
“There’s nobody better at kind of grinding something out, and the 100 mile distance is really about grinding, you know,” Storkamp said before Diggins finished. “So when it comes to that point, I think she’ll be well equipped.”
Storkamp told MPR News he’s not surprised she chose this race for her first 100 miler.
“It feels right because you know Jessie is from Minnesota and she’s a Minnesota athlete who has always really honored her Minnesota roots, like she’s always shown so much love back to the state of Minnesota," Storkamp said.
Diggins, 35, grew up in Afton and graduated from Stillwater High School.
The Superior 100 is considered one of the more difficult ultramarathon trail races in the country because of the hilly and rocky terrain. Members of Diggins race crew took turns running alongside her to help pace and guide her.
Racers ran the trail through the night with headlamps to navigate the pitch black forest, slogging through periods of pouring rain. Runners have 38 hours to complete the 101 mile course.
Diggins retired from cross country skiing in March after competing in her third winter Olympics. She won a gold medal in 2018, silver and bronze medals in 2022, and another bronze in this year’s games, just days after falling in a previous race and bruising her ribs.
She was honored in a retirement party in St. Paul’s Allianz Stadium in April.
MPR News will talk with Diggins after she finishes the races and will have more photos to share next week.
