Jessie Diggins is competing in the sprint classic Tuesday with bruised ribs from the women’s skiathlon event on Saturday, she told Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports. 

After racing in the sprint qualification round, she said that “it really hurts” and the bruised ribs make it hard to breathe. Diggins fell in the skiathlon race after Finland’s Vilma Nissinen went down while making a downhill turn. The crash delayed her position in the first lap, but she hustled in the freestyle section to finish in 8th place. 

"The crash wasn’t that big of a deal to me. Yes, I did lose some time but that wasn’t the bigger problem today, so I just kept focusing on, 'stay calm, work your way back and ski the best you can ski',” she said about the crash after the race. 

Diggins won bronze in the individual sprint at the 2022 Beijing Games in freestyle technique. The Olympics alternate between the two skiing techniques, so the 2026 Milan Cortina event will be contested in classic. 

In the sprint qualification, the 30 fastest skiers proceed to the next round. Diggins qualified for the sprint quarterfinals after she skied a time of three minutes 46 seconds, about 10 seconds behind Sweden's Linn Svahn in the top spot.