Afton's Jessie Diggins Featured In ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue

Afton native and Stillwater High School graduate Jessie Diggins is one of 15 famous athletes featured nude in the 2018 edition of ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue. Photos and video from the magazine were released online earlier this week.

Diggins, 26, spoke to the magazine about her life in Minnesota, her career, and what she hopes being in the Body Issue will do for women's cross-country skiing.

"I think, as a society, we tend to celebrate when men show off their bodies, and then sometimes we're judging when women do it," she told ESPN. "And I think it's really important to say, 'Hey, girls can be strong. Girls can have muscles.'"

Until Diggins and her sprint teammate Kikkan Randall did it earlier this year in Pyeongchang, no American woman had medaled in cross-country skiing at the Olympics, and Bill Koch was the only American to have ever medaled in the sport (he won bronze back in 1976).

"Cross-country skiing takes a lot of power and endurance, and it's also a graceful sport," Diggins added. "And I hope to be able to show those elements in the photos and to inspire younger women to be OK with who they are and what they look like."

Read more at ESPN.

Photo: Olympic Gold Medalist Jessie Diggins delivers a ceremonial pitch before the interleague game between the Minnesota Twins and the St. Louis Cardinals on May 15, 2018 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)