USA's Jessie Diggins collapses in pain after winning bronze at Winter Olympics: "I was skiing out of my body"

Jessie Diggins of the United States battled through a rib injury to claim bronze Thursday in the women's 10‑kilometer interval start, a cross-country skiing race dominated by Sweden's Frida Karlsson as she won her second gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

Diggins, racing in her final season, collapsed to the ground, shouting out in pain after finishing the freestyle race at the Milan Cortina Games and adding to her gold, silver and bronze career medal tally. 

NBC, which broadcasts the Olympics, shared a video clip on social media that showed Diggins completing the 10-kilometer race. Although visibly in pain, the footage captured her pushing forward until she reached the finish line. As soon as she crossed the threshold, Diggins fell to the ground.

The 34-year-old American finished 49.7 seconds behind a Swedish one-two, with Karlsson clocking 22 minutes, 49.2 seconds. Ebba Andersson was second, 46.6 seconds behind the leader.

Diggins fell in the opening race, the Skiathlon, and bruised her ribs. The injury hurt her following performance in the individual sprint where she was eliminated in the heats.

"I need a new body," Diggins said. "Honestly, I think I'm the happiest, most grateful bronze medallist in the whole world. It's been one heck of a painful week. Two days ago, I was like, I don't know how I'm going to do this."

She hugged her Swedish rivals before stepping onto the podium to chants of "Jessie! Jessie!" from a crowd that included a large traveling group of her family and friends.

"I just felt like I was skiing out of my body the whole time. And I was just trying to fight for every single second and to leave it all out there," Diggins said. "I've been up at night with my ribs clicking in and out of place. It's just really been hard."

Sweden's women have now won seven out of the nine medals handed out in cross country-skiing at Milan Cortina. Karlsson, who won gold in the 10-kilometer event, said she felt confident of victory after a strong hill climb before the finish and "was bursting with energy."

This is Diggins' fourth time competing in the Olympics. In 2018, she made history alongside Team USA as the first U.S. team to win a gold medal in cross-country skiing and went on to win a bronze and silver medal at the 2022 games, CBS News Minnesota reported. Diggins is from Minnesota.

She announced her plans to retire after the 2026 Olympics in a social media post last November.

"I want to share with you that this will be my final year of ski racing," Diggins said in the post. "It's going to be hard to step away from this sport and team that I love so much, but it also feels right in my heart, and I'm so excited to open a new chapter in my life."