On Sunday, September 16, Olympic champion Jessie Diggins disclosed that she recently struggled with her eating disorder after 12 years of being in recovery.  

“I’ve learned that sometimes the hard conversations we have can have the most transformative power,” Jessie wrote in a personal statement. “So although this isn’t easy for me, I have something I’d like to share with all of you. This summer, after 12 years of being in a great place of health, I’ve been struggling with my eating disorder.”

She spoke openly and honestly on her personal Instagram about how she is working daily with her team and focusing on putting herself, and her health, first. 

U.S. Ski & Snowboard and PEOPLE magazine worked together to help Jessie share her story. 

“Right now, I ask for your respect and trust that I’m putting my well-being first and foremost because my team and I all agree that a healthy and happy life is the primary objective.” 

U.S. Ski & Snowboard supports Jessie and anyone who may be struggling with their mental health. As she outlines in her statement, “To anyone out there struggling with mental health right now - I know that it can feel scary and hard to reach out for help, but it’s the best thing you can ever do.” 

Our mission at U.S. Ski & Snowboard is to empower athletes to achieve excellence, including providing the resources and tools necessary to ensure mental well-being. Mental health resources are available 24/7, 365 days a year. 

Ted Ligety and Ruff Patterson were inducted into the Intermountain Hall of Fame on August 24, 2023 in Park City, Utah.

Ligety is a two-time Olympic Winter Games gold medalist, surprising the world when he won gold in Torino in 2006 and reinstating his dominance in 2014 in Sochi. He is also a seven-time World Championship medalist (including five golds), has six World Cup Crystal Globes and 52 World Cup podiums. Known as Mr. GS, he dominated giant slalom races on the World Cup circuit, with nearly 80% of his podiums coming from the discipline. Ligety retired from the U.S. Ski Team in 2021 when he was 36 years old.

Accepting his award with tears in his eyes, Ligety thanked his parents, wife and three boys for supporting him through his career, as well as his coaches and teammates sitting in the crowd, including Steven Nyman and Chip Knight. Hailing from Park City and still living in the town today, it was a special moment for Ligety to have the Hall of Fame in his backyard welcome him with open arms.

Also inducted into the Hall of Fame was Ruff Patterson, a cross country skier from Sun Valley, Idaho, who now lives in Park City. He won the NCAA championships with the University of Colorado, before coaching for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation cross country team and then the U.S. Ski Team for 10 years, working primarily with the women and attending the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He also helped to steward skate skiing into the World Cup before taking over as the head coach for the Dartmouth Ski Team for 27 years.

Ligety and Patterson joined ski coach Butch Hoffman in the 2023 class of the Intermountain Hall of Fame. 

Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team athlete and professional trail runner Sophia Laukli secured another historic victory at the 50th edition of the Sierre-Zinal trail race, becoming only the fourth American to win the race and the first since 2014. She now leads the Golden Trail World Series overall rankings. 

Battling through rugged terrains and challenging elevations in the picturesque Swiss landscape, Laukli showcased her dominance in the strong field by crossing the finish line four minutes ahead of the second-place finisher and eight minutes ahead of third place. Laukli now leads the Golden Trail Series leaderboard. Only four Americans had won the mountain race before Laukli, dating back to its inception in 1974. 

“I’m really still quite shocked by the result, but it feels so good,” said Laukli. “I’m definitely very proud of this result because I think it totally exceeded my expectations - along with everyone else’s - which is always pretty fun… for it to be a surprise.”

Laukli, a 2022 Winter Olympian and a regular on the FIS World Cup, has been training in Oslo, Norway, this summer while also competing regularly on the Golden Trail World Series. Compared to skiing, Laukli has not been a competitive trail runner long, but now, she is making an impact in every race she enters. After a breakthrough 2022 running season where she placed fifth in the overall standings, she burst onto the scene in the 2023 season by winning the first race - the prestigious Marathon du Mont-Blanc, where she beat her competitors by another significant margin of 12 minutes. Just weeks later, she was back on the podium in second place at the DoloMyths Run in the Italian Dolomites.

As her familiarity with international trail racing grows, Laukli is cementing herself as the one to beat. For now though, Laukli has her sights set on the next race, the Mammoth 26k back in her home country, and will continue her training for the other sport she is a professional athlete in - cross country skiing.

As she traveled from Switzerland back home to Oslo, Norway, to gear up for a Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team national team camp, Laukli sat down to answer a few questions about how all of this feels, how skiing has contributed to her overall trail running success, and what’s next.

How are you feeling after your win in Switzerland? 

I’m really quite shocked. But, beyond the result and winning the race, I’m also just excited about how I executed the race. I didn’t have a huge tactical plan, but it seemed I came up with some tactics on the way and they worked out just right.

How do you feel like your cross country ski training is playing into your running right now? Or vice versa? 

I’m honestly quite surprised at how well my ski training has prepared me for these races. This summer, I’ve actually been doing a bit less running and more roller skiing instead. So, naturally, I’ve been a bit hesitant or worried coming into each of these races because I’m so unsure of my running shape. But obviously, it seems to be working great. I think the main reason is that I’ve been able to train at a much higher volume with all the roller skiing (less impact/toll on the body compared to running), which has really built up my endurance even more to excel in these running races. I also think that having so much training outside of running helps the body be much more rested and recovered for the races.

You’re first in the standings of the Golden Trail World Series and the first American since 2014 to win this race. What’s your mindset right now? 

It is definitely looking very good for the overall position in the series, but I don’t want to get too confident now because a lot can still happen. I am obviously hoping to win the overall in the end, so I will have to pick and choose a bit for the next few races to make sure I can peak for the finals in October and hopefully secure the overall win then. Also, knowing that there are not often Americans winning the overall, it really adds some extra motivation. Even in the individual races, it’s fun to put the U.S. more on the map, especially with some of the other U.S. women making it into the top.

What’s your stoke level right now? 

In general, I know it’s good to move on from races, whether they’re good or bad, but the stoke from this one is something I am going to hold onto for a while. I have had some great races before, but I do think this is one of my best performances both in skiing and running combined, so it’s safe to say that my stoke level is incredibly high. It’s easy to be excited about a result when it’s a win, but I am just extra proud of this race because of how I paced and approached the race from start to finish. It was the first time I felt that I had actually grown as a runner and put into practice what I have learned over the past couple of years. In other words, it was the first time I didn’t feel like a newbie in trail running.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard is highlighting HERoic trailblazers throughout our winter sports, both past and present. A HERoic trailblazer is a woman athlete who has gone above and beyond in her sport, moving the sport forward through grit and determination and inspiring the next generation of women athletes. 

In the sport of cross country skiing, the pink-haired Kikkan Randall is a household name. She was the first American to win an Olympic gold alongside Jessie Diggins, the first American woman to win a Nordic World Championship medal and the first to win a World Champs gold, the first American woman to win a World Cup race and was the first American woman to ever win a World Cup overall discipline Crystal Globe. Wow.

Emerging as a trailblazer, a role model and an inspiring figure for all athletes for both her sport and her HERoic achievements of health and balancing a family, her relentless pursuit has left an indelible mark on cross country skiing and the Olympic movement. 

A Journey of Dedication

Randall’s journey to becoming one of the most dominant skiers started the day after she turned one year old. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the home of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, she always knew that one day she wanted to be a skier. Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, skiing ran in the family – Randall is the niece of two previous Olympians, Chris and Betsy Haines. Her name was partly inspired by Christina “Kiki” Cutter, the first American, man or woman, to win a FIS World Cup title in alpine skiing. She began skiing the day after her first birthday and, despite originally aspiring to be an alpine skier, she tried out cross country to stay in shape for running. As the story often goes – the rest is history. 

Career Highlights

The crowning moments of her career came in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. With one of the most electric finishing stretches of a race seen throughout Olympic history, Randall and teammate Jessie Diggins upset the favorites to win the gold medal in the team sprint. The historic medal marked the first-ever Olympic gold for the United States in cross country skiing and was a moment that catapulted the sport to the masses. 

Randall competed in five Olympics and made her Olympic debut at 19 years old in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. In 2006, she finished ninth, making history with the best Olympic result in cross country skiing by an American woman. Throughout her career, Randall kept tallying more historic feats, inspiring generations of athletes at the same time. 

But before she was crowned Olympic champion, Randall shattered records left and right as the first American woman to do almost everything in the sport. She is a three-time World Championship medalist, including becoming the first American woman to medal at the World Champs when she took second in the sprint in Liberec, Czech Republic in 2009. She also won the first World Championships gold medal in U.S. history with Diggins in 2013 in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

She also became the first American woman to finish in the top 10 in the World Cup in 2006 (and then went on to have 29 podiums throughout her career), was the first American woman World Cup winner (she had 13 wins in total) and was the first American woman to win a World Cup discipline title with the sprint Globe in 2012 (she won three Crystal Globes in total). 

Breaking Barriers

Randall became a mother just 22 months before the 2018 Olympic Games, and was the only mom on Team USA’s 2018 roster. Within a month of giving birth, she was back in training mode and that next season, she packed up her son to spend the winter on the road racing the World Cup. That season, she won a World Championship medal, and the next, an Olympic gold. 

But two months after winning her Olympic medal, Randall was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had six rounds of chemotherapy in the summer and fall of 2018 and had surgery in the fall. But she ended up on the other side and now is partnered with the American Cancer Society to raise funds to fight the disease, and has since run marathons and skied more kilometers than most can imagine. 

In addition to the American Cancer Society, her work outside of skiing continues to speak volumes. Randall is the President of Fast and Female, a women’s empowerment agency that encourages eight to 18-year-olds to become involved in sport. She advocates and works tirelessly with Protect Our Winters to spread the word about climate change. She also worked on the International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission, and was inducted into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. She is a fierce advocate for creating opportunities for athletes to compete in cross country skiing, and her work has elevated the status of the sport and inspired generations of athletes. 

A Lasting Legacy

Randall stepped away from competitive skiing following the 2018 Olympics, but her legacy remains firmly embedded in the sport's history. She has left an enduring impact on cross country skiing, not only in the United States but also on the global stage, as well as for cancer survivors and mothers everywhere. 

Randall's journey is a testament to the power of perseverance, teamwork and a relentless pursuit of dreams. As her story continues to resonate with aspiring athletes and fans alike, there is no doubt that her contributions to cross country skiing will continue to inspire and shape the future of the sport for years to come, yet, the biggest takeaway is that whoever decides to try out skiing, enjoys it to the fullest and maybe wears a little bit of pink.

The FIS Cross Country World Cup is making its way back to the States over Presidents' Day weekend, Feb. 17-19, 2024 and it's time to reserve your tickets! The Loppet Cup will offer three unique viewing options to experience all of the action and excitement at Wirth Park in Minneapolis, MN, and thanks to our co-host Share Winter, general admission tickets are free, with registration required. Loppet Cup attendees may reserve or purchase up to six ticket types per event day.

It's been over two decades since the last World Cup event in the U.S., but get ready to witness the best skiers in the world race not once but twice at the adrenaline-pumping Wirth Park, just minutes from the heart of downtown Minneapolis.

Minnesota's own Jessie Diggins is coming back stateside to race a World Cup in her home country for the first time in her career, along with fellow National team athletes, including Minneapolis resident Zak Ketterson. 

How to Secure Your Loppet Cup Tickets

There are three ticket options for the Loppet Cup: general admission, grandstand and VIP spectator experience. You must reserve your tickets, even if they are free general admission.

Tickets:

1. General Admission (free): Provides entry into the park during the event and multiple viewing opportunities around the course. No seating is provided. Thanks to Share Winter, general admission is free and open to the public.

2. Grand Stand ($75 for adults, $35 for youth): Provides entry into the park during the event plus access to bleacher seating near the finish line. 

3. VIP Spectator Experience ($500): Provides access to grandstand seating plus a heated suite, full food and beverage service, and more. Click here for more information.

Check out the ticket options and frequently asked questions, here.