Beijing 2022 – The beautiful story of friendship of American speed skater Erin Jackson, crowned in the 500m

This Sunday, the American Erin Jackson became Olympic champion in the 500m. The American set the best time in the final in 37″04, ahead of the Japanese Miho Takagi (+0″08), who won a second silver medal in these Games, and the Russian Angelina Golikova (+0″17 ), who took bronze. This Olympic coronation, the first of a black athlete in the discipline, crowns an extraordinary and unprecedented career.

Erin Jackson’s incredible trajectory began far from the ice, in sunny Ocala, Florida where she grew up. She barely knows how to walk that she already puts on rollerblades, before enrolling at the age of eight in figure skating on rollers (less known but just as spectacular as her counterpart on ice) where her coach complains that she is going too fast . Erin Jackson then moved on to speed skating in which she won many national and then international trophies in the youth category, such as the 500m world championships in 2008. “I have always liked to go for it, but also to win. I am a very competitive person“, she explained to Forbes in March 2021.

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It was not until 2016, at the age of 24, that the Floridian finally tried ice skating, when the international federation (ISU) spotted her and offered her a trial in the Netherlands. “I thought to myself, this is just speed skating like I know how to do on wheels, so why isn’t it easier? I really had a hard time at firstt”, she confided to the site NBC Sports in December. She tried the experience once more a few months later in Salt Lake City but was still not convinced, before starting for good in September 2017, realizing that she might have an Olympic future in the discipline.

Erin Jackson behind Austin Kleba and Kimi Goetz in training at the Beijing 2022 Games

Credit: Getty Images

A dazzling progression

Training and perseverance paid off, Erin Jackson joined Team USA in January 2018 and qualified for the PyeongChang Olympic Games in South Korea only four months following his debut. “I didn’t even tell my father that I was registered for qualifying for the Olympics, because for me it was just a race, I didn’t realize yet“, then comments Jackson. In PyeongChang, the American made history by becoming the first black woman on the American team to participate in a speed skating event. If she finishes “only” 24th out of 31 in the 500m event, the Floridian understands that she can still progress a lot and get closer to the best.

She joined the world top10 the following year until a first consecration in November 2021 where she won her first world champion title in Poland, beating the Japanese Nao Kodaira, Olympic champion in PyeongChang in 2018. A double feat since she at the same time becomes the first black woman to win world championships, in a sport still composed mainly of whites.

Brittany Bowe and Erin Jackson in Beijing

Credit: Getty Images

No one deserves it as much as her

The beautiful story might have gone wrong on January 7 in Milwaukee, when Erin Jackson lost his balance in the 19th second of his qualifying race for the Beijing Games. Arriving in third position, she was finally picked up by her teammate and friend Brittany Bowe, who gave her her place in the 500m. “After her slip, I said to myself that if it was up to me, she might take my place.e”, responded Bowe, who also qualified for the 1000m and 1500m, at the microphone of

. “No one deserves it as much as her. She’s the world number 1 and our best chance for a medal on the team.“.

The two friends grew up together in Ocala. Bowe also started in rollerblading before choosing speed skating. “She was always there for me, even at the very beginning when I joined the team“, added Jackson in the same interview. “I am very happy and grateful, people knew the athlete, now they also know the great person she is“.

At 29, Erin Jackson was the favorite in the 500m at the Beijing Games, and she held her status by bringing home the gold. A historic performance for her but also for the discipline: “there are very few athletes of color in the Winter Olympics. I hope to show that nothing can prevent them from participating one day“.

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