Jessie Diggins feels the love in her last cross-country skiing race before retirement

Jessie Diggins did so many things for the final time on Sunday: putting on pre-race World Cup glitter, lining up at the start and finishing one last cross-country skiing race. Diggins, the best cross-country skier in U. S.

history, completed her career at the Stifel World Cup Finals in Lake Placid, New York, finishing 12th in a 20km mass start after a late crash took her out of podium contention. "I was in tears before the race. I was in tears after the race," she said.

"The love and the support of everyone just has meant so much to me, and it's been so incredible. It's just been the coolest thing in the world to be part of this. So I just want to say thank you to everyone.

" Diggins, 34, announced before this season that it would be her last. She retires with American cross-country skiing records for Olympic medals (four, including sharing the lone gold with Kikkan Randall in the 2018 team sprint), individual World Cup race wins (31) and World Cup overall season titles (four, including the last three in a row). After Sunday's race, she carried a ski that had the words "most decorated American cross-country skier in history.