Menu
Jessie Diggins
Jessie DigginsDo you know this young lady?  Why, it's America's new Olympic sweetheart -- Jessie Diggins.

Wait -- who?

Okay, well, my new Olympic sweetheart.  She's not a skater (sorry, Ashley Wagner), nor even a downhill skier (sorry, Lindsay Vonn).  She a Nordic skier -- you know cross country.  Sometimes they ski and shoot.  Anyway, Jessie came in 8th place in something called the skiathlon.  It combines two different styles of cross country skiing.  In 27th place after the first half, she moved up 19 places to finish 8th.  I saw her interviewed on tv, and she was super-excited by her performance, and by the fact that as she was skiing the course, she at one point heard her mother cheering for her.  Her mom!  At the Olympics!  And, to me, that's what the Olympics should be all about.

Hannah Kearney, unfortunately, is a loser.  Bronze is okay?Now, wait! you'll probably say.  Didn't she win a bronze medal (which if I'm not mistaken is much better than 8th place)?  Well, that's true -- but she was supposed to win the gold.  She won the gold four years ago in Vancouver.  So, whereas Jessie Diggins is delighted to finish 8th, Hannah takes no delight in having placed third or in actually having won a medal.  And NBC kind of thinks so, too; you could tell.  Which is kind of too bad, because even to be at the Olympics should be a hoot of the highest order.