By Bruce Karnick

[email protected]

Afton native Jessie Diggins came home for a celebration on Saturday, April 2 at Town Square Park. Hundreds of fans filled a tent to get a glimpse of Diggins and hear her speak. After the presentation and a short question and answer session, Diggins spent time with fans taking pictures and letting them hold the medals she won.

Diggins learned to ski at age 4 from her parents, began competing against older kids at age 11, won the US Junior National Sprint title on March 9, 2009, joined the US World Junior Cross-Country Ski Team and graduated from Stillwater High School in 2010.

Her early career accolades are impressive. In 2018 in Pyeongchang, she helped the US win the first ever medal in Cross Country Skiing by winning the gold medal with teammate Kikkan Randall. In the 2022 games in Beijing, Diggins won the silver in the 30k freestyle and bronze in the individual sprint. She also has medals from world championships.

The most impressive piece of Diggins is her positivity and charm. Spend five minutes listening to her talk and you can’t help but smile, 10 minutes and you will feel like you can take on the world. She is engaging, kind, funny and sincere. Diggins should be a name every young female should know as a role model.

Stan Ross organized her first welcome home party in 2018.

“She's really a great community supporter. So, I started calling people, and we got all of the sponsors to pay for it. We did the 2018 event for her. It was a little later in the season. It was actually May or June, it was very nice out here, so we did it all outdoors. This time, because of some timing issues, we decided to do it on this date, which gave me exactly two-and-a-half weeks to plan this. Think about it, the only woman in the US to win individual medals and team medals at the Olympics. I mean, this is this is incredible and she's a neighbor,” said Ross.

Ross also explained that even though Diggins does not live in Afton, she often spends a lot of time there in the summer.

“It is very common to be sitting down here having an ice cream cone and Jessie Diggins goes flying down the street on her skate skis training. You see her all over the village training. So, she's here a lot,” said Ross.

The reception event had food trucks, life-sized cutouts, drawings, photo ops and a conversation with a unique athlete from Afton Minnesota. Take some time to learn about Jessie Diggins and you will see what a wonderful human she is and why Afton loves her so much.

Photo by Bruce Karnick

Photo by Bruce Karnick

Photo by Bruce Karnick

The tent was packed on a Saturday afternoon with people that wanted to cheer on and meet Afton’s Olympic Medalist Jessie Diggins.

Jessie Diggins told a little of her story to a packed house in Afton’s Town Square Park. Before the Q&A session with audience members, Diggins announced her plan to train for the 2026 Olympics saying: “I make no promises after that, but I will be around for Italy.”