Erin Jackson, the world’s top-ranked 500m speed skater, nearly didn’t make it to the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Jackson said she “had a job to do and I failed to do it, plain and simple.” She didn’t feel completely comfortable agreeing with Bowe that she deserved to be in the Olympics, because “technically I didn’t qualify.”
“When she first told me she would have my back, I hugged her and hugged her, and as I hugged her, I was trying not to cry,” Jackson said. “It was a flood of emotions, where you don’t really know what you feel.”Jackson is looking to keep making history with her fresh opportunity. During the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, she became the first Black woman to compete for the United States in long track speed skating.
Jackson began roller skating at age 8. She idolized Bowe, a five-time world champion and eight-time inline world champion who is also from Florida. Like Bowe, Jackson first competed in inline speed skating before moving to the ice in September 2017. In just a few months, she qualified for her first Olympics, where she finished 24th.