Jessie Diggins: Brave Enough
A review of the new autobiography by Jessie Diggins, Brave Enough: “I thought I was going to die. My vision got blurry. The world suddenly had a pink tint to it.”
Cross country skiing Olympic Champion Jessie Diggins joins us as we explore her new book.
“Putting yourself out there in sports is one thing, but putting forth the worst moments of your life is quite another!”
By Paul McGee, Head Feature Writer. July 12 2020
When I first interviewed Jessie Diggins back in November, she was in the midst of an abounding World Cup season which would terminate, albeit prematurely, with the American cross country star lying 6th out of 124 registered competitors. She had scored 5 podiums and more loomed, but more important was the chance to bring cross country skiing back home after a nineteen year hiatus.
“I cannot wait to race in my own country for the first time in my entire career,” Jessie told me at the time. “This will be a huge event and such an incredible opportunity to inspire the next generation of skiers in the US.”
But we were talking in that other, pre-Coronavirus life, at a time when sporting schedules and life plans in general were all but set in stone. As with almost every other facet of life, the cross country skiing programme was about to take a knock.
In quintessential fashion, Jessie made the most of the last-minute cancellation. Having anticipated something for so long, having come so close, literally witnessing the building of the arena and tasting the opportunity to race on her home turf in front of her home fans, and then watching it all melt away under the threat of something so utterly unexpected, might have dented the resolve of a less optimistic personality.
Typically Jessie Diggins, courser of the silver lining, identified with the race organisers that they had succeeded – for a nation had been inspired. And she could have just shrugged then, waved to the crowds, flashed her now famous smile and the accompanying gold medal, and then headed home.
Instead she clipped in and led a new generation of cross country skiers around the course even as the stands were dismantled before them. The archetypal Jessie Diggins gives everything of herself whatever the demands. It’s a blood-and-guts commitment that has spanned not only her ski career but, as it turns out, her autobiography, Brave Enough.
When I first interviewed Jessie Diggins back in November, she was in the midst of an abounding World Cup season which would terminate, albeit prematurely, with the American cross country star lying 6th out of 124 registered competitors. She had scored 5 podiums and more loomed, but more important was the chance to bring cross country skiing back home after a nineteen year hiatus.
“I cannot wait to race in my own country for the first time in my entire career,” Jessie told me at the time. “This will be a huge event and such an incredible opportunity to inspire the next generation of skiers in the US.”
But we were talking in that other, pre-Coronavirus life, at a time when sporting schedules and life plans in general were all but set in stone. As with almost every other facet of life, the cross country skiing programme was about to take a knock.
In quintessential fashion, Jessie made the most of the last-minute cancellation. Having anticipated something for so long, having come so close, literally witnessing the building of the arena and tasting the opportunity to race on her home turf in front of her home fans, and then watching it all melt away under the threat of something so utterly unexpected, might have dented the resolve of a less optimistic personality.
Typically Jessie Diggins, courser of the silver lining, identified with the race organisers that they had succeeded – for a nation had been inspired. And she could have just shrugged then, waved to the crowds, flashed her now famous smile and the accompanying gold medal, and then headed home.
Instead she clipped in and led a new generation of cross country skiers around the course even as the stands were dismantled before them. The archetypal Jessie Diggins gives everything of herself whatever the demands. It’s a blood-and-guts commitment that has spanned not only her ski career but, as it turns out, her autobiography, Brave Enough.
As engaging an adventure as Brave Enough is, as emotionally inspiring, it is a book that might never have come to fruition.
“It actually wasn’t my idea at all, believe it or not!” Jessie tells me now. “Right after the Olympics I was approached about writing a book by a publishing company that had loved my pre-Olympic blog post, called “Brave Enough”. What really drew them in was the vulnerability and openness of the writing style, and it got me thinking that if I was ever going to write a book, maybe it could really help some people in a meaningful way. But given that my full time job is training and racing, I never thought I’d get around to it. When I was later approached again and told I could work with a co-author – Todd Smith was awesome – to help me get the chapters formatted, and that I wouldn’t have to go through the editing process alone – that is, after all, what an editor is for…but I didn’t know very much about the book publishing process back then – I gave it another serious thought and decided to jump into it. It’s been a crazy amount of work, but absolutely worth it. Every time someone reaches out to let me know how my story has inspired them or helped them get through a tough moment in their life, it makes all those hours spent sweating over each page worth it!”
In fact Jessie Diggins has given as much blood, sweat and tears to Brave Enough as she has her sparkling, and certainly still burgeoning, cross country skiing career.
We begin in Afton, Minnesota, where the young Jessie is taken on ski and canoe trips by her parents. Almost as soon as she can walk, Jessie Diggins is desperate to carry her own canoe, to make an attempt on all life’s summits, evincing the never-say-die attitude that is evolving right from her formative years.
As engaging an adventure as Brave Enough is, as emotionally inspiring, it is a book that might never have come to fruition.
“It actually wasn’t my idea at all, believe it or not!” Jessie tells me now. “Right after the Olympics I was approached about writing a book by a publishing company that had loved my pre-Olympic blog post, called “Brave Enough”. What really drew them in was the vulnerability and openness of the writing style, and it got me thinking that if I was ever going to write a book, maybe it could really help some people in a meaningful way. But given that my full time job is training and racing, I never thought I’d get around to it. When I was later approached again and told I could work with a co-author – Todd Smith was awesome – to help me get the chapters formatted, and that I wouldn’t have to go through the editing process alone – that is, after all, what an editor is for…but I didn’t know very much about the book publishing process back then – I gave it another serious thought and decided to jump into it. It’s been a crazy amount of work, but absolutely worth it. Every time someone reaches out to let me know how my story has inspired them or helped them get through a tough moment in their life, it makes all those hours spent sweating over each page worth it!”
In fact Jessie Diggins has given as much blood, sweat and tears to Brave Enough as she has her sparkling, and certainly still burgeoning, cross country skiing career.
We begin in Afton, Minnesota, where the young Jessie is taken on ski and canoe trips by her parents. Almost as soon as she can walk, Jessie Diggins is desperate to carry her own canoe, to make an attempt on all life’s summits, evincing the never-say-die attitude that is evolving right from her formative years.
There are annual family trips to Canada’s Thunder Bay, and we’re regaled with daredevil escapades from wreck diving in icy lakes to cliff jumping and open water distance swims, components assembled throughout Jessie’s childhood to form the athlete she will become.
The doing of a thing – a swim, a jump, a rope swing – just to complete it is at first the goal, but slowly blooming is a competitive urge that will season the final recipe. And always, with a gentle hand, is the passive influence of her parents:
“I was allowed the physical and mental freedom to explore…I was ready to start racing more competitively because I wanted to push myself—and not because anyone pushed me.”
The adventure winds through Jessie’s school years, and the nostalgia is transmitted to us through prose which sucks you in from page one and then throws a warm blanket around you. You’ll need it too, because the winter imagery is sometimes so effective that it creeps out of the pages and chills the skin. You’re on the ride with Jessie all the way and the result is that, while Brave Enough is something you might read to get fired up for a gym session, or a work presentation, it’s also a book to read in bed.
But if the stab of the ice and subzero temperatures touches you, the searing pain of Jessie’s training is manifested more profoundly still.
Jessie takes us into the Pain Cave and the writing explodes as dramatically as the lactic acid coursing her cells after a hard race. Which, as it turns out, is every race. We are taken into her competitive life, and even before the sniff of Olympic gold there are school relays conducted with the same relentless drive she applies to racing on today’s World Cup circuit.
“I had my first out-of-body experience as I was racing the final half a kilometer. I thought I was going to die. My vision got blurry. The world suddenly had a pink tint to it, as though I was wearing rose-coloured glasses. My hearing got fuzzy. There was a bonfire in my lungs, and it felt like I was breathing through the tiniest of straws. There was a bloody, acidic, metallic taste in my mouth, like sucking on a copper penny. I had stabbing, fiery pain in my legs caused by lactic acid building up. But not to fear! The longer I went, the better it got, because I started to go numb from my toes up to my knees.”
There are gentler moments of recall too. As Jessie goes through her box of memories, sifting literally through the mementos of her teenage years, you can only succumb to the pull of nostalgia: the friendships, the training camps, the early morning gym sessions and the evening movies. Sometimes, at the crack of dawn, she’s alone; others she’s working alongside her coach or teammates or teachers, and there is an enduring sense of camaraderie.
“At that point, I had gone to the junior national camps, where all the nation’s top skiers are invited to train and compete together. I went from being a big fish in a small pond straight into a large pond overflowing with big fish. Really shiny, pretty fish, too, that looked a lot more sophisticated and put together than my frumpy, little goldfish self! I quickly learned how nice they were, though, and started to make strong friendships that would last me through my career, and it was a wonderful feeling to have friends around the country. All the girls at the junior national level were such amazing skiers and were so talented.”
There are annual family trips to Canada’s Thunder Bay, and we’re regaled with daredevil escapades from wreck diving in icy lakes to cliff jumping and open water distance swims, components assembled throughout Jessie’s childhood to form the athlete she will become.
The doing of a thing – a swim, a jump, a rope swing – just to complete it is at first the goal, but slowly blooming is a competitive urge that will season the final recipe. And always, with a gentle hand, is the passive influence of her parents:
“I was allowed the physical and mental freedom to explore…I was ready to start racing more competitively because I wanted to push myself—and not because anyone pushed me.”
The adventure winds through Jessie’s school years, and the nostalgia is transmitted to us through prose which sucks you in from page one and then throws a warm blanket around you. You’ll need it too, because the winter imagery is sometimes so effective that it creeps out of the pages and chills the skin. You’re on the ride with Jessie all the way and the result is that, while Brave Enough is something you might read to get fired up for a gym session, or a work presentation, it’s also a book to read in bed.
But if the stab of the ice and subzero temperatures touches you, the searing pain of Jessie’s training is manifested more profoundly still.
Jessie takes us into the Pain Cave and the writing explodes as dramatically as the lactic acid coursing her cells after a hard race. Which, as it turns out, is every race. We are taken into her competitive life, and even before the sniff of Olympic gold there are school relays conducted with the same relentless drive she applies to racing on today’s World Cup circuit.
“I had my first out-of-body experience as I was racing the final half a kilometer. I thought I was going to die. My vision got blurry. The world suddenly had a pink tint to it, as though I was wearing rose-coloured glasses. My hearing got fuzzy. There was a bonfire in my lungs, and it felt like I was breathing through the tiniest of straws. There was a bloody, acidic, metallic taste in my mouth, like sucking on a copper penny. I had stabbing, fiery pain in my legs caused by lactic acid building up. But not to fear! The longer I went, the better it got, because I started to go numb from my toes up to my knees.”
There are gentler moments of recall too. As Jessie goes through her box of memories, sifting literally through the mementos of her teenage years, you can only succumb to the pull of nostalgia: the friendships, the training camps, the early morning gym sessions and the evening movies. Sometimes, at the crack of dawn, she’s alone; others she’s working alongside her coach or teammates or teachers, and there is an enduring sense of camaraderie.
“At that point, I had gone to the junior national camps, where all the nation’s top skiers are invited to train and compete together. I went from being a big fish in a small pond straight into a large pond overflowing with big fish. Really shiny, pretty fish, too, that looked a lot more sophisticated and put together than my frumpy, little goldfish self! I quickly learned how nice they were, though, and started to make strong friendships that would last me through my career, and it was a wonderful feeling to have friends around the country. All the girls at the junior national level were such amazing skiers and were so talented.”
But soon the balance between education and Jessie’s flourishing athletic pursuits becomes more demanding – and precarious. The pressure is mounting and while Jessie has a steadfast band of family, friends and teachers to lean on through the rigors of competition, dangerous eddies are swirling beneath the surface. It’s a dark path tragically familiar to so many young people (actually, to all people of all ages, I learn) but the teenage Jessie Diggins somehow papered over the warning signs: the nub of guilt that she’s eaten too much. Then the turmoil after she’s eaten anything at all. Then running to burn off any trace of surplus nutrition that might exist in her mind. Then comes the fateful moment.
“I pulled into a gas station, went into the bathroom. I had heard you can just stick your finger down your throat until you throw up. I paused for a few seconds. No! What the actual hell? You’re not actually going to make yourself puke, are you? My subconscious screamed at me. But the voice of the eating disorder came uninvited into my head, and it was screaming a whole lot louder.”
It is emotional reading. Absorbing Jessie’s pain is one thing, feeling the stab of devastation on behalf of her parents is almost too much to take in.
But soon the balance between education and Jessie’s flourishing athletic pursuits becomes more demanding – and precarious. The pressure is mounting and while Jessie has a steadfast band of family, friends and teachers to lean on through the rigors of competition, dangerous eddies are swirling beneath the surface. It’s a dark path tragically familiar to so many young people (actually, to all people of all ages, I learn) but the teenage Jessie Diggins somehow papered over the warning signs: the nub of guilt that she’s eaten too much. Then the turmoil after she’s eaten anything at all. Then running to burn off any trace of surplus nutrition that might exist in her mind. Then comes the fateful moment.
“I pulled into a gas station, went into the bathroom. I had heard you can just stick your finger down your throat until you throw up. I paused for a few seconds. No! What the actual hell? You’re not actually going to make yourself puke, are you? My subconscious screamed at me. But the voice of the eating disorder came uninvited into my head, and it was screaming a whole lot louder.”
It is emotional reading. Absorbing Jessie’s pain is one thing, feeling the stab of devastation on behalf of her parents is almost too much to take in.
This is not just a case of adding layers to the story. In writing Brave Enough, Jessie hasn’t wrung out specious emotional content merely for the sake of depth: hers was a fully fledged, life threatening eating disorder. One that saw her throwing up after every meal, sometimes purging herself five times a day. One that led her to the Emily Program, a clinic set up to help people with eating disorders, who even with all their experience and obvious success in the field, couldn’t fix Jessie overnight. They taught her to explore the roots of the problem, to accept why it was there, but the urge to bring up every meal wasn’t going away just like that. Not over a period of a few days, or weeks or even months. This was Jessie’s bad marriage, an abusive and submissive partnership that she simply could not pull free of. It is hard reading, but compelling. You won’t put it down while Jessie walks you candidly along the undulating road to her eventual recovery.
“That’s actually what really made the title stick for me,” Jessie tells me now. “Putting yourself out there in sports is one thing, but putting forth the worst moments of your life is quite another! But for me, it was important to write the book because I needed to share that vulnerability and the parts of my life that aren’t perfect, so that people know it’s possible to overcome those rough obstacles. I think sometimes it can be easy to see sports figures and assume that they’re superhuman, but in reality, nobody is. We all have our struggles. By sharing mine so openly, it’s allowed me to connect on a deeper level with so many aspiring young athletes who have reached out to me to let me know they are working on overcoming their own challenges, whether that’s in the eating disorder realm or not. Once we make those taboo subjects approachable and okay to talk about, we find it that much easier to reach out and ask for help.”
Brave Enough isn’t only a trial of strength against inner demons, nor is it solely a battle for elite cross country fitness; it is a character study. Not just her own, but those who drift into Jessie’s ever expanding hemisphere. Most – like cross country legends Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen – exert their wholesome pull on Jessie’s character and athletic prowess. Others emit a negative charge, and with tenebrous intent look to bring a young, sunny person recovering from a chronic eating disorder back down to her knees. We are taken through the impact of bullying within a team environment, a realm that should be populated by human affinity and unflinching support. We meet the good and the bad in Jessie’s sporting life, and her experiences of both are jaw dropping. But it is the effect more than the cause which is the most striking: the sunny, smiling Jessie Diggins, at the hands of those who would seek to beat her down, might have mutated into a robo-bitch, the unfeeling machine who, when fed hatred, spits it back. But she doesn’t: we see a Jessie Diggins battling adversity with benevolence. Torn up inside, she emits only compassion.
Part of that lies in her upbringing, part with the positive outside influences she seems to attract. For every bad there is a stronger good. For every malignancy there is a Liz Stephen, for every hand clawing her to the dark realms there is a Kikkan Randall.
“The morning of the race, Kikkan and I got together. We noticed that it had snowed lightly overnight. Some skiers would’ve found the new snow to be an obstacle because it would make the course soft. But it was to be our advantage. “This is great because it will slow the track down,” Kikkan said. “It will make it less of a pure sprint,” I added. “More of a guts race.” Thank God, because the sprint gene had really skipped a generation with me. We had positive attitudes and were so supportive of one another. We were not the favorites. We just wanted to put together a great day. We breezed through the semifinals, conserving some of our energy, which set us up perfectly for the finals.”
This is not just a case of adding layers to the story. In writing Brave Enough, Jessie hasn’t wrung out specious emotional content merely for the sake of depth: hers was a fully fledged, life threatening eating disorder. One that saw her throwing up after every meal, sometimes purging herself five times a day. One that led her to the Emily Program, a clinic set up to help people with eating disorders, who even with all their experience and obvious success in the field, couldn’t fix Jessie overnight. They taught her to explore the roots of the problem, to accept why it was there, but the urge to bring up every meal wasn’t going away just like that. Not over a period of a few days, or weeks or even months. This was Jessie’s bad marriage, an abusive and submissive partnership that she simply could not pull free of. It is hard reading, but compelling. You won’t put it down while Jessie walks you candidly along the undulating road to her eventual recovery.
“That’s actually what really made the title stick for me,” Jessie tells me now. “Putting yourself out there in sports is one thing, but putting forth the worst moments of your life is quite another! But for me, it was important to write the book because I needed to share that vulnerability and the parts of my life that aren’t perfect, so that people know it’s possible to overcome those rough obstacles. I think sometimes it can be easy to see sports figures and assume that they’re superhuman, but in reality, nobody is. We all have our struggles. By sharing mine so openly, it’s allowed me to connect on a deeper level with so many aspiring young athletes who have reached out to me to let me know they are working on overcoming their own challenges, whether that’s in the eating disorder realm or not. Once we make those taboo subjects approachable and okay to talk about, we find it that much easier to reach out and ask for help.”
Brave Enough isn’t only a trial of strength against inner demons, nor is it solely a battle for elite cross country fitness; it is a character study. Not just her own, but those who drift into Jessie’s ever expanding hemisphere. Most – like cross country legends Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephen – exert their wholesome pull on Jessie’s character and athletic prowess. Others emit a negative charge, and with tenebrous intent look to bring a young, sunny person recovering from a chronic eating disorder back down to her knees. We are taken through the impact of bullying within a team environment, a realm that should be populated by human affinity and unflinching support. We meet the good and the bad in Jessie’s sporting life, and her experiences of both are jaw dropping. But it is the effect more than the cause which is the most striking: the sunny, smiling Jessie Diggins, at the hands of those who would seek to beat her down, might have mutated into a robo-bitch, the unfeeling machine who, when fed hatred, spits it back. But she doesn’t: we see a Jessie Diggins battling adversity with benevolence. Torn up inside, she emits only compassion.
Part of that lies in her upbringing, part with the positive outside influences she seems to attract. For every bad there is a stronger good. For every malignancy there is a Liz Stephen, for every hand clawing her to the dark realms there is a Kikkan Randall.
“The morning of the race, Kikkan and I got together. We noticed that it had snowed lightly overnight. Some skiers would’ve found the new snow to be an obstacle because it would make the course soft. But it was to be our advantage. “This is great because it will slow the track down,” Kikkan said. “It will make it less of a pure sprint,” I added. “More of a guts race.” Thank God, because the sprint gene had really skipped a generation with me. We had positive attitudes and were so supportive of one another. We were not the favorites. We just wanted to put together a great day. We breezed through the semifinals, conserving some of our energy, which set us up perfectly for the finals.”
True to the spirit of any good globetrotting adventure, there are as many ups as downs. There is the fairytale majesty of Sjusjøen, Norway, with its endless trails weaving through a town where skis have all but supplanted motor vehicles; and there is the bleakly foreboding Rybinsk, Russia:
“Out,” he said again. We had to drag our bags from the bus to the town with the cabins where we were staying, because there was so much snow that the bus wouldn’t go farther. It was a half a mile to Rybinsk, and we dragged our bags and gear behind us, snow catching in the wheels, the bags bumping into our legs and tripping us up. We finally got to our cabins and collapsed into bed, shivering. But the nightmare wasn’t over yet. One more horrible thing happened. The next day, we were all sitting silently in the dining hall eating bulgur wheat and boiled beets when there was a big commotion outside. We looked out the windows and watched as the police pulled a dead man out of the frozen river. Welcome to Rybinsk.”
Throughout Jessie’s story you’re caught up not only in the intriguing, often magnetic, plot of her life, but also the personality behind it. You feel a sense of pity – an emotion she would never seek to invite – when she radiates sunshine and gets thunderstorms by way of reply. But while there are more blue skies than grey in Jessie’s life, the numerous lightning strikes have served only to temper her resolve. That iron clad determination which she was apparently born with is toughened by the knocks. As a book title, “Brave Enough” is appropriate. Is the young Jessie Diggins brave enough to run with her friends from the sauna to the cold waters of Thunder Bay? Is the teenage Jessie Diggins brave enough to ask for help through her eating disorder? It the adult Jessie Diggins brave enough to push through the pain barrier to win Olympic gold? Of course the answer is always a resounding yes, but being brave is a recurring feature, one that ultimately transcends her sporting life:
Following her debut Olympics at Sochi 2014, we witness Jessie Diggins in tears of emotion as she shakes hands with – then flings herself at – both then-President Obama and the First Lady. Skip forward to 2018 and the picture is very different as she takes an admirable stand. Having interviewed Jessie before now, I know about this moment, but the book adds another layer of emotional depth to her would-be encounter with the incumbent President.
“Fast forward momentarily to the next Olympic cycle, when I was offered the same trip back to the White House, this time to meet the newly appointed president number forty-five. As it was an invitation, not a summoning, I realised I couldn’t bring myself to stand next to someone who bragged about sexually assaulting women, who doesn’t believe that my friends who are LGBTQ deserve exactly the same rights to love and marry as anyone else, and who doesn’t protect the rights of everyone in this country regardless of race, background, or gender identity…I was warned that there might be a backlash for not going; as one of the medalists, I was not somewhat in the eye of the media. I was cautioned about taking a stance because I might lose fans, I might lose sponsors. I said I’d rather sleep well at night, because at the end of the day, I have to look at myself in the mirror and live with who I am.”
But Brave Enough is more than just an exploration of character (and more than just a great adventure, too).
If you’re after a scoop or some on-the-scene reporting, you’ll get your fix in the pages of the Jessie Diggins book. From an insider’s, warts and all perspective of the Sochi Winter Olympics, to what makes the US cross country ski team click when they’re off the track, to how Jessie hooked up with her boyfriend (it involves a game of giant jenga), you won’t be left wanting. And if insider gossip isn’t your scene, there are the nuts and bolts of cross-country skiing. Jessie’s portrayal of her training regime is a lung busting, calorie shredding read. If I’d ever considered a career in elite-level cross country, I might be having second thoughts right now. But I haven’t, and if you have then you already know the aerobic hell that awaits, so you’ll only benefit from reading this book.
And yes, the prose does grab. As with many autobiographies, Jessie’s is a team effort with freelance writer Todd Smith, and as with all good assisted autobios, it’s hard to tell who wrote what. But I’ve interviewed Jessie before and I can tell you, this is her. Which of the two writers that’s a testament to I’m not sure, I suspect both. If I had to pull a highlight from the rollercoaster ride and magnetic scene-setting so consummately woven into Brave Enough, I’d be hard pushed. But the chapter covering the moment Jessie decides to sacrifice her skiathlon race in the 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland, to save the following day’s team sprint – a race unbeknownst to her she hasn’t even been selected for yet – is tension worthy of a film.
True to the spirit of any good globetrotting adventure, there are as many ups as downs. There is the fairytale majesty of Sjusjøen, Norway, with its endless trails weaving through a town where skis have all but supplanted motor vehicles; and there is the bleakly foreboding Rybinsk, Russia:
“Out,” he said again. We had to drag our bags from the bus to the town with the cabins where we were staying, because there was so much snow that the bus wouldn’t go farther. It was a half a mile to Rybinsk, and we dragged our bags and gear behind us, snow catching in the wheels, the bags bumping into our legs and tripping us up. We finally got to our cabins and collapsed into bed, shivering. But the nightmare wasn’t over yet. One more horrible thing happened. The next day, we were all sitting silently in the dining hall eating bulgur wheat and boiled beets when there was a big commotion outside. We looked out the windows and watched as the police pulled a
dead man out of the frozen river. Welcome to Rybinsk.”
Throughout Jessie’s story you’re caught up not only in the intriguing, often magnetic, plot of her life, but also the personality behind it. You feel a sense of pity – an emotion she would never seek to invite – when she radiates sunshine and gets thunderstorms by way of reply. But while there are more blue skies than grey in Jessie’s life, the numerous lightning strikes have served only to temper her resolve. That iron clad determination which she was apparently born with is toughened by the knocks. As a book title, “Brave Enough” is appropriate. Is the young Jessie Diggins brave enough to run with her friends from the sauna to the cold waters of Thunder Bay? Is the teenage Jessie Diggins brave enough to ask for help through her eating disorder? It the adult Jessie Diggins brave enough to push through the pain barrier to win Olympic gold? Of course the answer is always a resounding yes, but being brave is a recurring feature, one that ultimately transcends her sporting life:
Following her debut Olympics at Sochi 2014, we witness Jessie Diggins in tears of emotion as she shakes hands with – then flings herself at – both then-President Obama and the First Lady. Skip forward to 2018 and the picture is very different as she takes an admirable stand. Having interviewed Jessie before now, I know about this moment, but the book adds another layer of emotional depth to her would-be encounter with the incumbent President.
“Fast forward momentarily to the next Olympic cycle, when I was offered the same trip back to the White House, this time to meet the newly appointed president number forty-five. As it was an invitation, not a summoning, I realised I couldn’t bring myself to stand next to someone who bragged about sexually assaulting women, who doesn’t believe that my friends who are LGBTQ deserve exactly the same rights to love and marry as anyone else, and who doesn’t protect the rights of everyone in this country regardless of race, background, or gender identity…I was warned that there might be a backlash for not going; as one of the medalists, I was not somewhat in the eye of the media. I was cautioned about taking a stance because I might lose fans, I might lose sponsors. I said I’d rather sleep well at night, because at the end of the day, I have to look at myself in the mirror and live with who I am.”
But Brave Enough is more than just an exploration of character (and more than just a great adventure, too).
If you’re after a scoop or some on-the-scene reporting, you’ll get your fix in the pages of the Jessie Diggins book. From an insider’s, warts and all perspective of the Sochi Winter Olympics, to what makes the US cross country ski team click when they’re off the track, to how Jessie hooked up with her boyfriend (it involves a game of giant jenga), you won’t be left wanting. And if insider gossip isn’t your scene, there are the nuts and bolts of cross-country skiing. Jessie’s portrayal of her training regime is a lung busting, calorie shredding read. If I’d ever considered a career in elite-level cross country, I might be having second thoughts right now. But I haven’t, and if you have then you already know the aerobic hell that awaits, so you’ll only benefit from reading this book.
And yes, the prose does grab. As with many autobiographies, Jessie’s is a team effort with freelance writer Todd Smith, and as with all good assisted autobios, it’s hard to tell who wrote what. But I’ve interviewed Jessie before and I can tell you, this is her. Which of the two writers that’s a testament to I’m not sure, I suspect both. If I had to pull a highlight from the rollercoaster ride and magnetic scene-setting so consummately woven into Brave Enough, I’d be hard pushed. But the chapter covering the moment Jessie decides to sacrifice her skiathlon race in the 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland, to save the following day’s team sprint – a race unbeknownst to her she hasn’t even been selected for yet – is tension worthy of a film.
Actually, there’s enough depth, drama, interaction, and heart stopping episodes in Brave Enough to make the whole book transferable to screen. Finding someone to play Jessie Diggins, however, might be a challenge. Not that she agrees with me about Brave Enough’s film-ability of course.
“I mean, I’m not naive enough to think there’s ever going to be a movie made out of my story!” Jessie tells me now. “But if there were…Reese Witherspoon would absolutely be the holy grail of actresses to play it! I’m also a huge Margot Robbie fan.”
For all the tension of the preceding chapter, it is the grand finale of Brave Enough that brings the story (almost) up to date in a nerve shredding crescendo. The writing comes into its own as Jessie conveys that epic battle to win Team USA’s first cross country Olympic gold in more than forty years.
If you know what happened, you need to read this to learn how it happened. If you’ve never followed cross country skiing before, you need to read this to understand the knife edge between success and failure in this sport, the intricate balance of endurance and technicality that is unique to cross country. You need to understand the heart and tenacity of its contestants. And if you were one of the select few who were there on the inside that day at Pyeongchang, I imagine you’ll have enjoyed reading this too.
Actually, there’s enough depth, drama, interaction, and heart stopping episodes in Brave Enough to make the whole book transferable to screen. Finding someone to play Jessie Diggins, however, might be a challenge. Not that she agrees with me about Brave Enough’s film-ability of course.
“I mean, I’m not naive enough to think there’s ever going to be a movie made out of my story!” Jessie tells me now. “But if there were…Reese Witherspoon would absolutely be the holy grail of actresses to play it! I’m also a huge Margot Robbie fan.”
For all the tension of the preceding chapter, it is the grand finale of Brave Enough that brings the story (almost) up to date in a nerve shredding crescendo. The writing comes into its own as Jessie conveys that epic battle to win Team USA’s first cross country Olympic gold in more than forty years.
If you know what happened, you need to read this to learn how it happened. If you’ve never followed cross country skiing before, you need to read this to understand the knife edge between success and failure in this sport, the intricate balance of endurance and technicality that is unique to cross country. You need to understand the heart and tenacity of its contestants. And if you were one of the select few who were there on the inside that day at Pyeongchang, I imagine you’ll have enjoyed reading this too.
The Jessie Diggins book Brave Enough is available now from University of Minnesota Press. Click here or the Brave Enough book cover above to order a copy.
My thanks to Jessie Diggins once again for her time, and also to Heather Skinner at University of Minnesota Press for her assistance in arranging this interview and book review.
You can keep up with Jessie at the following:
Jessie Diggins Instagram: @jessiediggins
Jessie Diggins website: jessiediggins.com
Related article: Jessie Diggins original interview