Sports Afton's Jessie Diggins Featured In ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue Photos and video from the magazine were released online earlier this week. Reply 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."<doc-sep>Jessie Diggins hopes to open a conversation about body image after appearing in ESPN the Magazine‘s “Body Issue.” The Olympic gold medalist detailed her own experience with an eating disorder as a teenager in what she called “the most important blog I’ll ever write.” “When I was 18-19 years old, I had everything in the world going for me, but I struggled with confidence and didn’t love myself,” Diggins, now 26, wrote on her website. “I suffered from an eating disorder, and eventually sought help at a treatment center, checking in for a summer program that saved my life. So when I was approached about the ESPN issue, I thought “is this REALLY something I want to do? Will it bring back old memories? Will I be ok with everyone seeing my body exactly as it is?” Diggins is remembered for winning the first U.S. Olympic cross-country skiing title with Kikkan Randall in PyeongChang (Here comes Diggins!). In the cross-country world, she’s also reputed for her bubbly presence, spreading glitter across her face and sharing it with fellow skiers before races. She wants to be associated with much more. “I want to be known not for going through an eating disorder, but for helping other women and men speak up when they need help and not feel judged for needing a friend to talk it through with,” Diggins wrote. “Statistically speaking, at least 6% of you reading this right now are struggling with disordered eating in some way. So to those of you for whom it feels like the end of the world, I can say this: it can, and it does, get better. I know, because I lived it. It will take more courage than most anything else in your life, but you can get better. And it’s worth it.” Years before becoming a medal-winning athlete, Diggins checked into The Emily Program, a national leader for eating disorder treatment. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but also the most important,” she wrote. “Because it saved my life, in every way that a life can be saved. I learned that I was struggling with this so much because I needed an outlet for stress, and that it was ok to feel a range of emotions – that I could survive feeling pressured, stressed, unhappy, sad, or angry as well as feeling happy-go-lucky.” Diggins called posing for the Body Issue “a full-circle moment.” ESPN says the Body Issue celebrates every shape and size of athletes in artful fashion. “[It’s] a chance for me to use a large stage to waltz right up to the microphone and share a message that I think is extremely important, and long overdue,” Diggins wrote. “We need to open up the conversation about body image, self confidence, and disordered eating. It should not be a shameful thing, or a taboo topic. It’s more prevalent than people think, and perhaps making help easier to find and less difficult to ask for could save some lives.” MORE: Biathlon legend retires with four Olympic golds OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!<doc-sep>Afton native and Stillwater High School graduate Jessie Diggins is one of 15 famous athletes that will be featured in the buff for the 2018 edition of ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue. The edition will be released online June 25. Another athlete with local ties, Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves, will join Olympic gold medalist Diggins in the nude issue. 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).<doc-sep>Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Flipboard (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Figure skater Adam Rippon is among seven Olympians announced for the 10th edition of ESPN the Magazine‘s Body Issue. Rippon, a team event bronze medalist, is joined by fellow PyeongChang Olympian Jessie Diggins (gold, cross-country skiing) and Summer Olympians Tori Bowie (track and field), Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart (basketball) and Megan Rapinoe and Crystal Dunn (Soccer), Non-Olympian athletes include Saquon Barkley and Jerry Rice (football), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (soccer), Greg Norman (golf), Karl-Anthony Towns (basketball), Dallas Keuchel and Yasiel Puig (baseball), Lauren Chamberlain (softball) and Charlotte Flair (WWE). Images will be published online Monday, and the magazine hits newsstands June 29, according to ESPN. Past Olympians in the Body Issue include Serena Williams (on the first cover in 2009), Michael Phelps, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Aly Raisman and Gus Kenworthy, OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us! MORE: Adam Rippon opines on figure skating future<doc-sep>
ESPN’s “Body Issue” came out today. The issue, which features several prominent athletes posing nude, is always a big hit on social media. This year’s edition features athletes like Karl-Anthony Towns, Sue Bird, Saquon Barkley and others. U.S. Winter Olympics star Jessie Diggins is a part of this year’s magazine. She took to Instagram to discuss the opportunity and why she did it. “I never thought I’d do the ESPN Body Issue..but that’s also because at one point in my life, I never thought I’d have the self-confidence to love myself and truly believe that who I am is good enough. I am perfectly imperfect, and beautifully flawed. And before you judge, there’s a blog post about my journey to positive body image that you really should read (link in bio). Love your body for the kick-ass things it can do, not for what it looks like,” she wrote. Diggins had previously said that this was not a “spur of the moment” decision and that it was something she really thought about. “This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision for me. I second guessed myself and debated whether or not I wanted to be in it for a while, worried about what people might say (that I did it for the money? You don’t get paid to do the magazine) and if it would make me less of a role model when I, too, could be proud to show off the muscles I worked so hard for. Then I realized something…if only my 19 year old self could have had this healthy and positive body image, I wouldn’t have had such a long journey towards feeling proud of my body! Being an athlete with a strong body and muscles, and being psyched about the things my body can DO, instead of worried about what it feels like, is the most empowering feeling in the world. And I’m happy to share that. Let’s be less judgmental of one another, yes? Here’s to celebrating the human body and the amazing things it can do!” she wrote. You can see full photos from this year’s edition here.