Colorado Springs, CO – The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has honored the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team with its Team of the Month Award for November.

The Team made history Nov. 25 in Gaellivare, Sweden with its first ever relay podium, finishing third in the women’s 4x5k team event  as Afton, Minn.’s Jessie Diggins outsprinted Norway II into the finish to claim third. After a solid opening classic leg by Holly Brooks, of Anchorage, Alaska, Kikkan Randall put the team into podium position with a powerful freestyle leg by Vermont’s Liz Stephen setting the stage for Diggins to bring home the podium.

“We’ve had a great start to the season and we’re turning a lot of heads. it’s really cool to get some recognition from the USOC and from people outside our ski world,” said Brooks. “We’ve definitely created a lot of momentum in the nordic ski community and we’re starting to get beyond our friends and families. People are realizing that cross-country skiing is a really exciting sport.”

This past weekend in Quebec City, the team showed its strength once again with Randall and Diggins combining for a team sprint World Cup win and Anchorage’s Randall taking the individual sprint.

“We just came off a great weekend in Quebec where we had another best with Kikkan and Jessie winning the first team sprint,” added Brooks. “There were 30,000 people in the crowd, tons of American flags and the spirit was really high.”

U.S. Ski Team downhiller Marco Sullivan was third in USOC balloting for the men’s individual Athlete of the Month following his comeback podium result in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada last month.

The U.S. cross-country team now heads to Canmore, Alberta, Canada, for a weekend of three World Cups beginning Thursday.