BEIJING, Feb. 14 (BUS) – Erin Jackson pulls out of the line, her strong legs attacking the ice, and her fate awaits at the end of a frantic rush around the magnificent oval of speed skating in Beijing.
She did not see herself as some kind of pioneer. She didn’t think about the slip that could have snatched her place on the US Olympic team. She simply wanted to go faster than anyone else, according to the Associated Press.
“I came here to win,” said the 29-year-old.
mission accomplished.
Jackson became the first black woman to win a speed skating medal at the Olympics – and it was the best color ever.
gold.
“Big shock, so much relief and so much happiness,” Jackson said after winning the 500 meters.
It was a very personal moment for an inline skating champion from Ocala, Florida, who swapped out her wheels for blades in order to realize an unlikely Olympic dream.
But it meant so much more than that.
Jackson’s skin tone makes her an anomaly in the rapid oval shape. She joined fellow American Shani Davis as the only black athletes to win long-track medals at the Olympics.
“I just hope you do something for the sport,” Jackson said of her groundbreaking win. “I hope more people will see this and say, ‘Oh, maybe I should try some of these winter sports. “
Back in Florida, Jackson’s long-term coach, Renee Hildebrand, encouraged her at an early-morning viewing party hosted by one of roller-sports sponsors, Pont.
Hildebrand also hopes Jackson’s win will bring some much-needed versatility to skating — regardless of whether it’s wheels or blades.
“She’s a great role model,” Hildebrand said in a phone interview. “You might see her little girls and boys who don’t care about skating or figure skating and say to her, ‘Hey, people color me over there.'” she looks like me.'”
The coach noted the remarkable achievements of Davis, who won two golds and two silvers at the Olympics, and now Jackson.
“There aren’t a lot of African Americans into speed skating, but those who have been are really, really good,” Hildebrand said. “If others come, they’ll be fine.”
Jackson won with a time of 37.04 seconds, giving the US speed skating program its first medal at the Beijing Olympics, its first individual medal since 2010, and its first victory in the women’s 500 since Bonnie Blair in 1994.
Jackson’s gold came after she slipped in the US trials and finished shockingly third, putting her place on the Olympic team in jeopardy.
But teammate Brittany Beau, another Ocala figure skater who took first place in the trials, gave up her place in the 500 to ensure Jackson would be in Beijing.
“You made a really big sacrifice for me,” Jackson said. “I will forever be grateful to her.”
As it turns out, the Americans finished third in the 500 when the final assignments were made, so Boe got on the skis, too. It ranked sixteenth.
The two best friends hug after Jackson grabbed the gold medal.
“She hugged me and we cried,” said the winner. “She said she was really proud of me and I said a lot of thanks.”
Jackson skated the penultimate of 15 pairs with a time of 37.12 – about half an hour before in the fourth pairing by Japan’s Miho Takagi – in sight.
She never thought about this slippage in the American trials.
“It’s not something to really focus on,” Jackson said. “It was a coincidence.”
Jackson rushed off the goal line and won the gold in the first 100 metres, before negotiating the first turn. Her opening split was 10.33 seconds, compared to 10.41 for Takagi.
This was the margin at the end, too.
“When it comes to 500, it’s about hundreds and sometimes milliseconds,” said Jackson’s When On Ice coach Ryan Shimabukuro. “I knew she had the pace and would go down to the opener. When I saw her open at 10.3, the fastest she ever did, I knew we had a chance to win the gold.”
Jackson maintained her speed through the first turn, right down into the intersection and then into the last turn, although each step caused more and more pain. Both of her arms were swinging wildly as she immediately descended into the shortest speed skating race.
As soon as her sleds crossed the line, Jackson’s head turned toward the scoreboard.
She smiled a big smile when she saw the number “1” next to her name, her time 0.08 faster than Takagi. Shimabukuro pumped his arms and slapped Jackson’s hands as she raced next to him.
There was still one pair left to skate, but Jackson knew she couldn’t do worse than bronze.
After a few minutes, it was her gold.
“You’re an Olympic champion,” Shimabukuro told her.
Jackson sat on the liner along the pitch, shedding a few tears with her head bowed.
She was undoubtedly also thinking of her wonderful journey.
Going from inline to snowboard just months before the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Jackson was such a quick study that she landed a spot on the US team. She placed 24th in the 500, but it was clear that she had barely tapped into her potential.
During the current World Cup season, Jackson has suddenly emerged as one of the best sprinters in the world. She won four of eight 500 races—the first black woman to win one of those titles as well—and attended the Olympics as one of the nominees.
“When I won my first World Cup, I was like, ‘Okay, that’s weird. “Let’s see where he goes,” Jackson recalls. Then I won again and said, ‘Okay, maybe I can do that. “
She lived to billing level in Beijing, becoming the first American woman to win an individual medal in speed skating since 2002.
“Words cannot explain how proud I am of her,” Boo said. “I knew she had the opportunity to do something really special, and she showed the world why she deserved to be here.”
Jackson grabbed the American flag and wrapped it triumphantly around the oval ice strip, stars and stripes fluttering over her head.
“It’s been a wild ride,” she said, “but that just makes it sweeter.”