Jessie Diggins, in final race weekend, wins fourth cross-country World Cup title

It’s the third straight and fourth career World Cup title for Diggins, 34, who is retiring after this weekend. Diggins entered the season’s final set of races with a 342-point lead over second-place Moa Ilar of Sweden, making it all but certain she’d wra

Jessie Diggins is going out on top. The American cross-country skiing star on Friday clinched the crystal globes as both the World Cup distance and overall season champion, finishing fifth in the women’s 10-kilometer classic in Lake Placid, N. Y.

It’s the third straight and fourth career World Cup title for Diggins, 34, who is retiring after this weekend . Diggins entered the season’s final set of races with a 342-point lead over second-place Moa Ilar of Sweden, making it all but certain she’d wrap up the crown early in the weekend. Ilar would’ve needed to win all three races over three days and pick up all available bonus points, plus have Diggins not earn more than three points all weekend, to take the title.

On a day of heavy snow Friday in the Adirondacks, Diggins left no drama. Ilar went out 40th in the interval start race and was third when she finished, slipping back to eighth by the end. Diggins started 58th and was ahead of Ilar’s pace through most of the race, finishing in fifth in 29 minutes, 36.