BENNETT SOLOMON: She Waited And Waited And Waited. Finally, Erin Jackson’s Golden Dream Came True

Skating With Old Glory: Erin Jackson realized it wasn't a dream. (U.S. Olympic photo)

She was a history maker. A gold medal winner. A world champion. Thousands of hours of practice had finally paid off.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Bennett Solomon secured a one-on-one interview with the gold medal-winning Jackson for this story.)

By BENNETT SOLOMON

GatorBait Intern

When Erin Jackson crossed the finish line in her final heat of the 500-meter speed skating race, she knew there was a good chance. A good chance to become the first African American woman to ever win gold in speed skating. With a time of 37.04, she knew she had at least secured a medal. In the second to last pairing, she beat the second-place time of 37.12, set by Japan’s Takagi Miho. But now, the waiting began.

Olga Fatkulina and Andzelika Wojcik raced last. In just under 45 seconds, Jackson would find out if she had made history. The two crossed the finish line with times of 37.76 and 37.78, securing a gold medal for Jackson. When she looked at the times and realized the result, she hugged her coach, Renee Henderson, and quickly fell to the ice with her hands covering her face, emotional and stunned at what had just happened.

She was a history maker. A gold medal winner. A world champion. Thousands of hours of practice had finally paid off.

However, Jackson was and wasn’t supposed to be competing in the 500m event. She wasn’t supposed to compete because she placed third at the U.S. Olympic trials, leaving her without a spot in Beijing. But her teammate and Ocala training partner Brittany Bowe, decided to give up her spot in the event to let Jackson skate. “There’s no way,” Brittany had said of the chances that Jackson wouldn’t be on the U.S. team.

She was supposed to compete in Beijing because Jackson is a perfectionist. Growing up, Jackson said she was always competitive. In the classroom, she was always looking to improve her academics. On the ice, she spent hours perfecting her skills and said she even noticed imperfection in Beijing despite coming home a gold medalist.

“I don’t really know where that came from,” she said. “I’ve always been self-motivated and competitive with myself. When I was younger, it was always about trying to get the best grades. My parents had a lot to do with that. When it came to sports, my coach Renee really instilled that self-motivation in us from a young age.”

Jackson began her speedskating career when she was 10 years old, but her main focus growing up was always school. Jackson went to Forest High School in Ocala, and always had a dream of going to the University of Florida. She would eventually graduate from UF in 2015 with a honors degree in materials science and engineering.

She said her favorite part about UF was the whole experience, especially knowing she was getting one of the best education’s in the country.

During her time at UF, Jackson was competing in inline speedskating and roller derby. She didn’t transition to the ice until 2017 but still juggled her school work along with the travel for inline speedskating events.

When she graduated, she fully committed to transitioning to the ice and joined the U.S. team in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2017. She said the transition was tough and felt she had to make up for a lot of lost time, so she went to the rink to practice as much as she could. She would practice every day, even sometimes twice a day when the rink was open Monday-Saturday.

“When I first joined the team out in Salt Lake, I was really bad at it,” she said. “But I spent a lot of time on the ice to try and build that comfort and I went to the rink as often as I could. If my team had one training session on ice a day, then I would go to an additional one on my own.”

Now, Jackson isn’t so bad on the ice after all. When the final race ended Feb. 13, she took a victory lap around the Olympic rink. She held her two arms high, carrying the American flag, smiling and waving at the crowd. A possibility turned into a dream come true. When she stood on the Olympic podium receiving her gold medal, she broke down with tears of joy.

“I didn’t really see this happening this quickly,” she said. “ It’s still hard to believe that it actually happened. It’s still hard to put it into words, but it’s an amazing feeling. Just being there surrounded by my teammates, being able to look at them out in the crowd while I’m getting my medal, I felt a lot of happiness, a lot of pride and a lot of relief.”

With the closing ceremonies commencing Feb. 20, Jackson still hopes to build off her success and add to her already impressive resume. Now an olympic gold medalist and 47 time inline National Champion, Jackson is confident she can utilize her perfectionist mindset to improve her small mistakes and make another gold medal run in her third Olympic games to come.

“My main goal is to keep training and keep improving on things,” she said. “I saw a lot of imperfection in the way I’ve been skating, but I’m looking forward to cleaning all that up and getting even faster.”

It’s tough to improve on a gold medal, but the competitive speed skater will no doubt be trying to skate even faster.