3 hours ago
3
On the ice, Erin Jackson is the picture of control – metronomic in her balance, rhythmic in her stride, a woman whose margins for error are blade thin. But all that control melted away when the speed skater glided on to Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test reality TV series in fall 2023 for a taste of the grueling training that elite US troops endure.
She was part of a motley cast that included former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, NBA clutch shooter Robert Horry and skier Bode Miller, a fellow Winter Olympic champion. But Jackson was less concerned with outshining her athletic peers than with confronting her own fears. To test her anxiety around swimming, Jackson was strapped into a mock helicopter, submerged in icy water and told to hold her breath for at least 15 seconds before freeing herself, grabbing a lifejacket, and paddling to safety.
Even though she panicked underwater and bailed on the drill after just five seconds, Jackson went on to complete the overall course, finishing as one of three contestants – and the only world-class athlete – to earn a passing grade. “I’m a lot tougher than I thought,” the 33-year-old said at Team USA’s media summit late last year. “I have a lot of fears, and the show did a really good job of exploiting all of them. It was a good character-building experience for me.”
Mind you, this is a woman who was already standing on a strong foundation – the wheeled skating prodigy from Ocala, Florida, who transitioned to ice in adulthood and captured the 500m at the 2022 Beijing Games, making history as the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold in an individual sport. As one of this year’s US flag bearers, Jackson entered the Milano Cortina Games with high expectations. A stumble in the 1000m sprint kept her off the podium earlier this week, but a Sunday return to the Milano Speed Skating Stadium for her 500m title defense offers a fresh shot at redemption. That she’s even in this position is an even stronger testament to her courage than the trials she endured alongside JoJo Siwa and multiple runners-up from The Bachelorette.
Allow Instagram content?
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.
Jackson struggles to remember a time before skating. “I’ve been a skater my whole life,” she said. “My first memories are of skating up and down my driveway on those little plastic skates that you attach over your shoes. That morphed into being what we call a ‘rink rat’, just someone who hangs out at the local skating rink, skating around to the music, eating pizza with friends. That was my whole childhood. That’s still what gets me going.”
Jackson’s inline skating hobby quickly morphed into a vocation, taking her away from the University of Florida to 47 national titles and a starring role as a “jammer” on the US roller derby team. In 2016, at the relatively overripe age of 24, she made the leap to speed skating with no prior experience. After a four-month training push, she qualified for the 500m at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang. Three years after that 24th-place finish, she set two track records on her way to becoming the first Black woman to win on the World Cup circuit.
That momentum carried her toward the Beijing Games – a touch too fast, perhaps. In the 500m trials Jackson bobbled out of the corner, clipped the ice on the back straight, and went down, losing precious seconds in a race measured in hundredths. Somehow, she chipped across the finish line furiously enough to take third – an impressive recovery, though still short of a guaranteed Olympic team spot.
Jackson had come to terms with looking ahead to the 2026 Olympics instead. But then a curious thing happened: Brittany Bowe, who had also qualified for the Games in the 1000m, relinquished her spot in the 500m roster for Jackson, a childhood friend. “After that unfortunate slip I knew in my mind before that night was even over that if it had to come down to a decision of mine, she could have my place,” Bowe said at the time. “No one is more deserving than her to get an opportunity to bring Team USA home a medal.”
In the spirit of good vibes, Bowe’s grand gesture brought another twist: Team USA received an additional quota place in the women’s 500m, making it possible for both her and Jackson to skate in the event. In the end Jackson didn’t just land on the Beijing podium; she pipped the 500m field by eight-hundredths of a second to become the first American woman to win the event since Bonnie Blair in 1994, all the while drawing comparisons to Shani Davis – the Lewis Hamilton of speed skating. Ever since, Jackson’s life has spun along a blur of speaking gigs, endorsements – not least a recent ad for Hershey’s chocolate – and, of course, the TV time with Jack Osbourne and the villain of Vanderpump Rules.
“I had like that one morning and afternoon after the event, and then I was on a flight home the next evening for six nine-hour days of constant media,” said Jackson, recalling the aftermath of her gold in Beijing. “It’s really about capitalizing on the time we have to get the word out about our sport and the Olympic movement.”
But even amid the whirlwind, nothing steels Jackson’s focus like seeing so many boys and girls who look like her, looking up to her. “I really take on that responsibility with pride of being a face others can look to and maybe get out and try the sport,” Jackson said of her pioneering status. “It’s really rewarding to get tagged in these posts from parents showing me videos of their kids out there skating. When I retire from skating and have a bit more time on my plate, I want to start an organization to help fund people’s [start in] speed skating because it is a really expensive sport to get into.”
For now, her focus is on defending her title on Sunday. Perpetually on the move, Jackson carries her gold medal in a travel pouch to keep pace with the constant demands of media, fans and rubberneckers. “I joke that the only thing it’s good for is getting me stopped at airport security,” she said. But that’s not to suggest her bauble is a burden. Every medal she can grab, she will, without fear. She got this far after battling through back and hamstring injuries and surgery in March 2023 to address chronic fibroid issues.
As for the rest, she’ll leave that to fate, the ice and whatever else she can’t control.
