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2018 Winter Olympics: Women’s cross country skiing results

This morning's cross country skiing team pursuit can be watched tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT on NBC.
Kikkan Randall of the United States and Jessica Diggins of the United States (R) handover during the Cross Country Ladies' Team Sprint Free semi final on day 12 of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins have made history in their sport, winning an Olympic gold medal, the first medal ever at the Games for American women in cross country skiing.

The Americans beat runner-up Sweden by .19 seconds down the stretch. Norway won bronze, almost 3 seconds back.

Randall and Diggins join Bill Koch as the only American skiers to win Olympic medals in the sport. Koch’s silver came 42 years ago at the Innsbruck Games.

The Americans won their semifinal heat to reach the final. In the final, they were head to head with Sweden and Norway throughout the race. On the final leg, Diggins had fallen back to third but sprinted home to pull off the victory.

Diggins and Randall have been building toward this moment for years, since they teamed up to win gold at the 2013 world championships. Randall has set the bar in U.S. cross country skiing, landing on the World Cup podium 29 times in her career. The 35-year-old who trains in Alaska took time off to have her son Breck after the Sochi Games.

At last year's world championships, Randall won bronze in the individual sprint and Diggins took silver. Diggins has the most world championship medals in team history, collecting her fourth in the team sprint at the 2017 worlds.

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