Erin Jackson’s success story in speed skating seems almost paradoxical. She never dreamed of the Olympics or the US national team, and in just a few seasons she became the leader in sprint distances. Erin Jackson’s career is a journey from roller tracks and university lecture halls to the World Cup, records and gold at the Beijing Games, where she became the first black champion in speed skating. We tell you how Jackson achieved such heights.
A love of rollerblading and a fateful encounter
Olympic champion Erin Jackson grew up far from the classic ice rinks, in hot Ocala, Florida. Instead of her first skates, she had plastic rollerblades with adjustable fastenings that were worn directly over regular shoes.
At first, the girl just skated around her house, but then she became fascinated with figure skating at roller rinks. Over time, however, Erin realised that she liked the feeling of speed much more than practising jumps.
The transition to speed skating happened thanks to her mother. One day, she met a woman named Renee Hildebrand at a diner. It turned out that she was a world-renowned coach who had been discovering and nurturing talent in roller speed skating for decades. Erin’s mother told her new acquaintance that her daughter loved roller skating, so Hildebrand invited Jackson to her training sessions.
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Future stars Joy Mantia and Brittany Bowe were already training in that group. At the time, Bowe was the world champion and, without further ado, simply gave young Jackson her old skates and costume. Their acquaintance at the local roller rink grew into a long-lasting friendship and rivalry. From childhood, Erin looked up to Brittany, who was four years older than her, and admired how Bow won tournaments around the world.
Roller speed skating took an important place in Jackson’s life. She achieved 47 victories in the national championship and competed in international competitions, but for a long time did not see herself in professional sports. “As a teenager, I was more concerned with my studies than with sports. I didn’t dream of a career as a star athlete or competing in the Olympics. My main focus was on school,” Erin admitted.
An inspiring example and a change of disciplines
By the early 2010s, Jackson was living in several worlds at once. She combined roller speed skating training not only with her engineering studies at the University of Florida, but also with roller derby, a tough contact sport that almost made it into the 2020 Olympics programme.
Sport was still not her lifelong dream: Jackson openly admitted that in her youth she hardly followed competitions and did not associate herself with the Olympic movement: ‘I liked rollerblading, I didn’t want to get on the ice.’
At the same time, she achieved serious results in speed skating at the international level. In 2013, Jackson won a bronze medal in the 500 m at the World Championships, in 2015 she added a silver at the Pan American Games, and a year later she again finished third at the world championships. These successes only reinforced her confidence that the transition to ice was not a necessity.
Although the path from ‘wheels to blades’ had long existed — even the legendary Apolo Onno had taken it. Old acquaintances Brittany Bowe and Joy Mantia followed the same route. They tried to recruit Jackson too, but she refused. The reasons were simple. First, she wanted to get her degree first. Second, she simply did not like the cold.
Everything changed at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. Jackson saw her friends Bow and Mantia representing the United States on the world’s main sporting stage. That’s when the idea of speed skating, which had been in the back of her mind for years, came to the fore. It wasn’t a sudden epiphany, but rather a slow-maturing decision that combined ambition, curiosity and a sense of missed opportunity.
