Episode 152: Jessie Diggins on Becoming a Beginner Again

This week, Corrine Malcolm sits down with Jessie Diggins, Olympic champion, multiple-time World Cup overall champion, and one of the most accomplished American cross-country skiers ever, for a conversation about what happens when sport stops being your job. Now retired from professional skiing, Jessie is stepping into a very different chapter — one that includes trail running, public speaking, advocacy, and learning what it feels like to be a beginner again.

They talk about identity after elite sport, what training means when there isn’t a podium waiting at the end, and how Jessie is deciding which parts of her competitive life she wants to carry forward. They also dig into her first 100-miler at Minnesota’s Superior 100, the team she brought along for the experience, what surprised her about the distance, and whether she’s caught the ultra bug.

It’s a thoughtful conversation about reinvention, curiosity, and what it looks like to keep loving sport when the outcome no longer has to mean anything.

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