Afton To Honor History-Making Olympian Jessie Diggins

AFTON, MN — Afton is set to welcome home its biggest star, Olympian Jessie Diggins, with an afternoon of celebration next month.

The event is set to run from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 2, in Town Square Park. Diggins is scheduled to arrive at the celebration around 1 p.m., but organizers are encouraging residents to get there early.

Diggins is due to speak at the event, but she’s also expected to pose for pictures with fans and show off her Olympic medals and World Cup trophies, according to an announcement for the celebration.

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The Stillwater Area High School graduate returned from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing with two historic medals to add to her collection.

Diggins, 30, won bronze in the freestyle sprint early in the competition, the first-ever medal for an American woman in an individual cross-country skiing event. She later earned a silver medal in the 30-kilometer freestyle cross-country skiing race, despite going into race day sick with food poisoning.

With that silver medal, she became the first American cross-country skier to win more than one medal at an Olympics.

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"A night and an Olympics that I'm never going to forget!" Diggins posted on Instagram after winning silver. "Thank you to everyone who believed, who cheered, who supported and got me through these Games and the years leading up to it."

"I am forever grateful!" Diggins continued. "Leaving Beijing with a tired, run down and exhausted body … but a full heart."

Diggins now has a medal of each color. She and teammate Kikkan Randall shocked skiing fans as they won gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in the women’s team cross-country sprint. They were the first Americans to win a gold medal in cross-country skiing and the first to earn any medal in the sport since the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

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Afton’s celebration for Diggins will also feature food trucks, while Selma’s Ice Cream Parlor is set to sell a commemorative sundae covered with edible glitter sprinkles.

Organizers thanked the City of Afton and Allianz and Salomon for their support of the celebration for Diggins, as well as volunteers and donors from community partnerships with Selma’s Ice Cream Parlor, the Afton Business Association, Afton Alps Ski and Snowboard, and Washington County.

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