There's a new documentary out about Minnesota Olympic Champion Jessie Diggins, a film in which she shares her very personal experience with her eating disorder in the hope of helping others.
"As I headed into the season, I could feel that voice that wanted me to just disappear," Diggins says in a clip from the film.
It features her life during a high-stakes World Cup season, exploring her incredible athletic success and superhuman pain tolerance on the ski course.
"This voice would say, you have to be willing to suffer," Diggins explains.
She shares her vulnerabilities, with the hope of helping others.
Jillian Lampert with the Emily Program talked about what the impact of Jesse's sharing does for others in a similar situation. The Emily Program is a specialized eating disorder treatment organization.
"If somebody can see somebody like Jessie Diggins, this Olympic gold medalist, has also struggled with a mental health issue," Lampert says.
The film documents her ongoing recovery from a severe eating disorder, bulimia, and her navigation of a mid-season relapse in the public eye.
"It's really hard, and it can be some of the hardest work that somebody does, and it is entirely worth it," Lampert adds.
The new documentary is called "Threshold" and it is currently available to stream on Apple TV.
Lampert says Diggins' honesty in the film will help others, and people in similar situations need that support.
"People with eating disorders deserve care," Lampert adds. "They deserve treatment, and they deserve to get help. And reaching out for help and watching somebody like Jessie do it in such a vulnerable way can really, I think, help give somebody the courage to do it for themselves."
Diggins, who has given up her cross country skies for running shoes, is running this weekend in the Superior 100 Mile Trail Race, along the Superior Hiking Trail from Gooseberry State Park to Lutsen along Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior.
Diggins is the most accomplished cross-country skier from the United States in the sport's history, having won four World Cup overall titles, four Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships.
