Olympic fairy tales don’t get any better. Erin Jackson (29) took her first clumsy steps on ice skates barely five years ago, today the American took a historic gold medal. An achievement that would never have been possible without the ultimate favor of a compatriot.
2016, the skating rink of Dronten in the Netherlands.
Extremely uncomfortable, Erin Jackson ventures for the first time in her life on (slippery) ice, with two razor-sharp knives under her feet.
She scrambles along meter by metre, slower than a granny with a walker. There is nothing to suggest that a future Olympic speed skating champion is on the track at that moment.
The only hint is that the American is already a phenomenon in inline skating at that time.
For Jackson, the sport is just about the only distraction from her difficult family situation. She grows up in a poverty-stricken family and has been a caregiver for her chronically ill mother at a young age.
After her mother passed away in 2013, Jackson shifted his focus to her studies of applied physics and chemistry at the University of Florida. Only after graduating with distinction two years later, she also wants to pursue her sporting ambitions.
Lightning fast to the top
Due to her enormous inline skating talent, Jackson has been traveling to the Netherlands for several years to train and participate in competitions. And secretly she also wants to try ice skating, just like her Dutch friends. In contrast to rollerblading, this is also an Olympic sport.
Taken by fellow skater and marathon skater Bianca Roosenboom, she gets her big baptism of fire on that particular day in 2016.
After that it goes fast. Lightning fast.
Once the studious Jackson has completely mastered the skating technique, she also turns out to be a sprint bomb on the ice. The coach of the American speed skating team lets her participate in the Olympic qualifying tournament. To the surprise of many, she immediately qualified for the 500 meters at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
Jackson after her unexpected qualifying for the Games in 2018.
We’re just four months at that point since Jackson first started skating. It is therefore not surprising that she finished “only” 24th during her first Games.
Its competitors already realize that the rough diamond would become a competitor for the future, given its enormous margin of progression. They’re right: In November 2021, Jackson will become the first black American woman to win a World Cup.
The ultimate friend service
The ultimate goal is to shine at the Beijing Games.
Only Jackson – technically skating sometimes not perfect – makes a fatal slipper during the American trials, as a result of which she misses an Olympic ticket. Those go to winner Brittany Bowe and number two Kimi Goetz.
The dream seems shattered.
But Bowe then selflessly donates her spot to her best friend and fellow townsman, because she realizes that she has a better chance of getting a medal.
“I can’t describe how grateful and happy I am with Brittany’s decision,” Jackson beams afterwards. “I’ve known her all my life and have looked up to her since I was young. I already knew what a great person she was and now she is showing it again.”
In the run-up to the Games, Jackson is one of the banners of Team America. As a big star, she even appears on the cover of the famous Sports Illustrated magazine.
This afternoon she also fulfilled those sky-high expectations by being the first African-American woman to take skating gold at the Games.
Thanks to her natural talent, but especially best friends Roosenboom and Bowe.
