February 25, 2018 (PyeongChang, South Korea) – The USA’s Jessie Diggins wrapped up her stellar Olympics at PyeongChang with a strong 7th-place finish in the Olympic women’s 30km CL mass start in warm conditions that saw Norway’s Marit Bjoergen take a decisive victory to secure a record 8th gold medal at the Games.

In doing so Bjoergen tied her countrymen xc skier Bjorn Dahlie and biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen for most gold medals won at the Olympic Winter Games.

Earlier she broke the record of most medals won at the Winter Games winning her 14th medal in the team sprint to surpass Bjorndalen’s 13 medals. With her 30km CL victory Bjoergen has earned a record 15 Games medals.

Diggins teammate Sadie Bjornsen (Winthrop, Wash.) finished 17th while Rosie Frankowski (Anchorage, Alaska) was 21st, and Caitlin Patterson (Anchorage, Alaska) was 26th. The top Canadian was Emily Nishikawa in 30th with Cendrine Browne 43rd while Anne-Marie Comeau did not finish.

“It was a tough race for sure,” said Diggins, who suffered a first-lap crash but recovered quickly. “Any time you do 30k it is really hard and it takes a lot of guts. For me, it was my worst race of the games, but I was seventh in the world today and I am really proud of that.”

“It was really fun… over the last 15km nothing felt really good out there but it was really fun to dig deep,” said Bjornsen. “A fun 30K suffer-fest to finish the Games.”

It was Diggins best Games capped by historic Team Sprint gold with Kikkan Randall to claim the USA’s first women’s medal in cross-country skiing. She was announced as the Team USA flag bearer for the Closing Ceremony at the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium.

Results here.