Jessie Diggins is the Olympian Testing the Limits of Endurance
A report from Nytimes recounts how Jessie Diggins, described in the piece as the best-ever American cross-country skier, pushed through brutal conditions and severe illness at the final day of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 when she raced the women’s 30-kilometer freestyle.
About 30 hours before the start she became violently ill from what she believes was food poisoning and struggled to keep down food or liquid. During the race she crashed early, missed a crucial feed and the drafting advantage, then developed cramping and signs of a body in crisis — altered vision, muffled sound and depleted muscles — yet she crossed the finish line to win a silver medal and afterward needed extended rest.
The article notes that sports scientists view cross-country skiing as approaching the upper limits of human endurance because it is a quadrupedal, interval-based sport that elevates VO2 max and demands both aerobic and anaerobic extremes.