'She hugged me and said she is really proud of me,' Jackson said. Two years later, Jackson transitioned her craft to the ice and Sunday became the first US speed skater to win gold since Bonnie Blair in 1994 at the Lillehammer Games, as well as the first Black woman to win a medal of any kind (and from any country) in speed-skating, according to Team USA.Īfter the race, and the release of her emotions, Jackson sprinted to find Bowe and release some more. Later came a career in roller derby for the Jacksonville RollerGirls of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, where she was the league's MVP in 2014. How does a Black woman from Florida become the fastest ice-skater on the planet? Before she came to UF (by way of Ocala Forest High) and graduated with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering, Jackson took up in-line skating - as in roller blades - and actually won a gold medal at the Junior World Championships as a 17-year-old. I haven't fully processed everything quite yet, but it just feels amazing.' 'A lot of shock, a lot of relief and a lot of happiness. 'I cried immediately, it was just a big release of emotion,' Jackson told reporters afterward winning her race Sunday. Instead, her teammate and close friend Brittany Bowe, who had qualified in two other speed events, gave up her spot in the 500 so Jackson would have a chance.

1 in the world in her event, the 29-year-old Jackson failed to qualifying for the Games when she fell during the U.S. It's also a story of a friend and teammate's love (on Valentine's Day eve, by the way) and one of an historic shattering of a color barrier (during Black History Month, no less).Įrin Jackson, the Ocala-born University of Florida grad, captured the women's speed-skating 500-meter gold medal Sunday at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in a time of 37.04, good enough to beat Japan's Miho Takagi by eighth-tenths of a second.

Hers is a remarkable story of making the most of a second chance.

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