Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
Threshold
Admittedly, I’m not a sports fan, though I am a fan of the Olympics, both summer and winter. However, I’m always up for well-made, informative documentaries, so when the feature film Threshold crossed my radar, I was intrigued. The film just premiered on Peacock, and I encourage you to check it out. Threshold is more than just another sports documentary. It’s the story of a woman who appears stunningly perfect, racking up world-wide medals and accolades, even meeting with President Obama. Yet for years, her successes were overshadowed by a deadly secret. The self-imposed grip of bulimia, starvation, and near-system failure.
Featuring Olympic Gold medalist cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, who hails from Minnesota, Threshold is especially timely, being released just after the conclusion of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina. Diggins is the most accomplished cross-country skier in history, winning multiple World Cups, World Championships and Olympic medals. She went pro right after high school and won the first cross-country Olympic gold for the U.S.
Like many athletes, she suffered multiple injuries over the course of her career, including bruising her ribs in a crash during her first race at the 2026 Olympics. That crash also impacted her breathing, but she managed to finish eighth in the skiathlon. Just a few days later, the world watched as Diggins dug down deep, and, though grimacing in pain, won the bronze in the 10K freestyle. It’s obvious that endurance sports like these have a huge mental component to them; many times she's amazed herself by pushing far past her physical pain, collapsing just across the finish line.
Though Diggins announced she is retiring after the conclusion of the 2025-2026 season, making Milan-Cortina her fourth and final Games, she’s already sketched out her future plans which include sharing her personal struggle with BDD – body dysmorphic disorder, which led to years of bulimia. Diggins, who is so beloved by her state that she has a street named after her, is a hero to many young girls wanting to follow in her snowy footsteps, girls who may also be secretly experiencing bulimia. Diggins tells us that she was afraid to go public with her diagnosis, concerned about possible ridicule. However, following her public admission, she received so much support that she agreed to develop Threshold with filmmakers Lars and Torsten Brinkema.
As a competitive teen, Diggins started missing meals, opting out of eating with her family, choosing instead to strap on her skis and head out the door, no matter what time it was. In the film, which is edited with a great deal of compassion for the athlete and the person, Diggins comes across as driven, resilient, and extremely likeable. She admits she believed she had to be ‘100% in everything’. That she was never doing enough, never thin enough, never fast enough. She says she ‘had the feeling she was being watched all the time.’ She tied her self-worth to her competition results. She talks frankly about these issues, including the pressure of wearing the ‘yellow bib’, which means you’re the world leader in a particular sport.
She considers herself fortunate that her family noticed the problem and became proactive, seeking out physicians, nutritionists, and mental health counselors. The reason it took her family years to become aware was because she wasn't home for months, constantly travelling the world in competitions. Though her fellow skiers noticed, it wasn’t until she was back with her family that she was forced to face her demons. For her BDD to loosen its hold, Diggins had to learn to separate her wins or losses from her own identity as a person. These are the realizations she wants to share with others suffering from BDD. She knows her life could have turned out very badly, had she not had the support of friends and family. That there is something freeing in asking for help. She names many athletes who were not so lucky. Threshold is shot over the course of one competitive ski season in many stunning locales including the Arctic Circle, and is interspersed with compelling clips and moments from Diggins’ past, both personal and professional. It’s a film that is totally of-the-moment, celebrating one athlete's joy and thankfulness to still be alive and at the top of her game.
