PYEONGCHANG, South Korea _ It wasn't that Luke Bodensteiner didn't have faith. But in the aftermath of Wednesday night's Olympic gold medal, the one Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall earned in the team sprint, he admitted he was starting to worry that the Americans' 42-year Winter Games drought in cross-country skiing would continue.
Bodensteiner, an Olympic cross-country skier who is now chief of sport for US Ski & Snowboard, watched as Diggins came just short of the podium in four hard-fought races over eight days at the Pyeongchang Games. "She raced a lot," he said. "You get a little fatigue, and that can wear on you. But you couldn't pull her out of a race, because she had a chance in each one.
"I was a little concerned. We were lucky we had a couple of days off before [the team sprint], so she could recover. It was a little bit touch and go."
Wednesday, it was all go. Diggins, of Afton, partnered with Randall to become the first U.S. women to win an Olympic cross-country medal, and the first Americans ever to win Winter Games gold in the sport. To get there, it took an extraordinary effort in both the long run and the short.
Randall, 35, is the warhorse of the U.S. women's team, a 20-year veteran and five-time Olympian. Her efforts to create a true team atmosphere in an individual sport _ particularly one as punishing as cross-country skiing _ helped nurture a generation of young standouts, with Diggins, 26, at the center. The group is so special, Bodensteiner said, that he believed "we could wait another long, long time" for a chance to win an Olympic medal if it did not happen in Pyeongchang.
Under the lights at Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Centre, Randall and Diggins combined for the perfect mix of tactical savvy, speed, heart and will. After Diggins chased down Sweden's Stina Nilsson in the final straightaway to win by 0.19 of a second, the entire U.S. women's team ran to engulf them in hugs and tears, celebrating an achievement that connected them all.
"We always said any medal we got was going to belong to the team," Diggins said. "We worked so hard in training all summer long. We push each other every single day.
"It's the belief this team has in each other that gave us this opportunity. This isn't our medal. It's Team USA's medal."
The team events have long been Diggins' favorite, to the point where she has needed the team psychologist to help her take as much joy in her solo achievements as her group ones. Bodensteiner said as the U.S. women prepared for the Olympics, they put special emphasis on the team sprint.
It is a unique event, with lots of starting and stopping as one skier completes a leg and her teammate takes off. US Ski & Snowboard officials believed the team sprint offered the U.S. the best chance of medaling at the Pyeongchang Games, so they made it a focal point of their training. Athletes worked on skills specific to the event, which showed Wednesday in their smooth exchanges and powerful starts.
"It influenced the way they trained all year," Bodensteiner said. "This was a real target for them, for sure.' "
Diggins as the anchor was a sure thing. Sadie Bjornsen was a likely choice for the second spot, but Randall won out because of her climbing ability. The Alpensia course has a wicked grade, one that Bodensteiner said was going to decide who won the race.
Randall was superb on the climbs, displaying tactical brilliance as well as strength. Diggins _ who said she had looked forward to this race for a year _ wanted to get "a good draft and a good slingshot" behind the Swedish and Norwegian skiers to propel her to the finish.
"I could feel her behind me when the last 400 meters came," Nilsson said. "I tried to focus on my skiing and do my best. But [Wednesday], she was stronger."
Shortly after the race, Bodensteiner got a text from Sasha Rearick, head coach for the U.S. men's Alpine ski team. Rearick called Diggins' stretch run "the most possessed, will-not-lose moment" he had ever seen.
"She's so tenacious," Bodensteiner said. "She's got this extra gear that when the chips are down, and she finds it, she will not let go."
Even the women they defeated had kind words for Diggins and Randall. Norway's Marit Bjoergen _ whose bronze in the team sprint gave her 14 Olympic career medals, the most in Winter Games history _ said she was "very, very happy for Jessie and Kikkan," and she is among the European skiers who admire the Americans' team spirit.
For several years, Diggins has conducted a prerace ritual of painting her teammates' faces and sprinkling them with glitter. Randall bought several pairs of striped socks at a European convenience store on a whim and decided to make those the team relay socks.
They are now the team trademark, a symbol of fun and unity, and they were on the feet of Randall and Diggins on Wednesday _ a reminder of the collective effort that finally got the U.S. its medal.
"This is something the American team has been working on for a long, long time," Randall said. "We've known it was possible. This is amazing validation for a team that has worked so hard."
