Team USA’s Erin Jackson won a brilliant gold in the women’s 500m speed skating on Sunday.
Jackson, 29, went in the penultimate pair and her time of 26.71 seconds was enough to see her take gold in Beijing ahead of early leader Takagi Miho. She started quickly, beating Takagi’s first split by 0.02 seconds and she maintained that to end up winning by 0.08 seconds.
It was a remarkable performance from Jackson in what is the United States’ first speed skating gold since Shani Davis won the men’s 1000m at Vancouver 2010.
This is Jackson’s second Olympics, after she competed in PyeongChang, where she became the first Black American woman to represent the U.S. in speed skating having taken up the sport only five months previous in September 2017.
Jackson came into these Olympics as No. 1 in the world at this distance, but almost missed out on a chance to compete for the U.S. In the 2022 U.S. Olympic Trials, an error saw her finish third in the heats and with only two spaces available, she was set to miss out. But the winner — Brittany Bowe — forfeited her place in the 500m, to allow Jackson to compete.
“Just for her to do something like this for me, it’s amazing,” Jackson said at the time. “I’m just incredibly grateful. I’m really humbled, and she’s just an amazing person.”
Jackson came into the Olympics having won four of eight 500m races on the World Cup circuit, along with a second- and a third-place finish.
“She has earned her spot,” Bowe said. “Erin is absolutely on top of her game now.”
Bowe ended up competing in the 500m having been offered one of the re-allocated empty spots by Team USA. She was one of three Americans in the starting line up alongside Jackson and Kimi Goetz. Bowe, who will hope to medal in both the 1000m and 1500m, finished in 16th while Goetz came 18th.
