February 26, 2017 (Lahti, Finland) – The USA’s Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen delivered a gutsy bronze in the women’s 1.3km classic Team Sprint at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti as anchor Diggins went head-to-head with Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in all-out sprint to line for the final medal.

The gold went to Norway’s Heidi Weng and anchor Maiken Caspersen Falla who prevailed over Russia’s Yulia Belorukova and Natalia Matveeva as the two teams battled out front for most of the race. Norway became the first nation to claim three Team Sprint victories in a row having won previously in Sochi OWG 2014 and Falun WSC 2015.

For Team USA it was a historic day this was their first classic technique FIS Nordic Worlds medal since the two disciplines were established. The bronze is the third Worlds medal for the USA – a new high – and also marked the fourth career medal for Diggins from Afton, MN, another U.S. record. In addition it was the debut World Championship medal for Bjornsen who hails from Winthrop, WA.

As the lead-off skier Bjornsen brought great classic skiing strength to the team and remained calm, cool and collected. On the second lap of the finals, the pace picked up but she stayed right with the leaders. On her final leg, she took an inside track up the first hill – pushing the fresh, new snow.

“By the time I made the turn to do the herringbone hill, I was pretty tired,” said Bjornsen. “But I just knew I needed to get up that hill in a place where I could re-catch those leaders because the double pole section right after that was somewhere I could catch up to people. We got to the top, closed the gap and came down into the stadium with that group and handed off to Jessie with every last bit of effort in a place where she could fight for the medal still.”

Diggins, meanwhile, didn’t seem to have the punch to stay with the leaders. But on the final leg, she put on the afterburners as they headed to the stadium and moved up from seventh to fourth behind Sweden’s Stina Nilsson. On the final downhill she passed Nilsson and led into the final turn. Then Diggins put the hammer down and held off the Swede and take the bronze!

“In the final, I moved out into the herringbone lane out of the tracks early on so I could get around a couple of people,” said Diggins. “I was trying to stick right on Stina (Nilsson) and she had a little bit of a gap at the top of the hill. I was double poling like a maniac and I was like, you know what, downhills are a strength and our skis are really fast—I have a lot of confidence in our techs and I knew our skis are great.

“I skied the downhill the best I knew how and was able to draft her and get into my own lane with the best line—I took the inside lane so I knew I would be able to pick my track going into the final 100 meters. Then I just double poled my heart out.”

Canada’s, Cendrine Browne of Saint-Jérôme, Que. and Dahria Beatty of Whitehorse, skied to seventh place in their semifinal heat, putting them 13th overall.

“My skis were super good, I had good grip and glide and they were competitive with the skis of the other girls. The course was really tough but I thought it went by really quickly.  I really tried to take one lap at the time and ski each one the best as I could,” said Browne.

“Our first transition was chaotic. One of the Czech girls skied right in to me, making me fall. It’s a good thing I had already tagged Dahria, but it still startled her and we lost of few seconds there and started to loose contact with the pack. I tried to catch up to the group on my second lap but couldn’t. So the leg that was the hardest was the second.

“I’m very happy with the race. I was pretty constant and I think I skied well. I’m also happy to have been a part of this team. Dahria and I had fun and we gave our everything,” she concluded.

“The first two laps were really fun and there was still some connection to the front group,” said Beatty. “I was just trying to stay in contact. It was awesome to race mass start race at this level.”

Earlier in the day the Americans faced a similar battle to make the final. Going up against Sweden, Russia and Germany in the second heat, Bjornsen mixed it up for the lead as the duo stayed near the front. On the final leg, Diggins was in fifth but doublepoled frantically to advance to third – with no chance to catch the leaders she hoped for a Lucky Loser spot and made the final.

While Bjornsen is a proven classic skier, Diggins is just showing her skills in the technique. The pairing worked well. And it was not lost on the athletes what they had accomplished.

“It just slowly dawned on me – we got a medal in a classic team sprint and that is so cool,” said Diggins. “We’ve been working towards it for a long time – targeting this race for a long time and thinking about it and planning and visualizing it. I’m just so proud of this team.”

The classic sprint will air Sunday evening as a part of Universal HD’s same day coverage from 9:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. EST.USA

Results here.

With files from USSA.