{"id":2656,"date":"2018-01-27T14:13:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T14:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/?p=2656"},"modified":"2021-01-17T08:23:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T08:23:39","slug":"1st-african-american-woman-on-u-s-olympic-speed-skating-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/?p=2656","title":{"rendered":"1st African-American woman on U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Who is Erin Jackson?<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2660 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/black-speed-skater-300x168.jpg?resize=341%2C191\" alt=\"\" width=\"341\" height=\"191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/black-speed-skater.jpg?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/black-speed-skater.jpg?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Erin Jackson surprised herself and almost everyone else at the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trials, becoming an Olympian after just four months on ice.<\/p>\n<p>Coming from inline skating, Jackson qualified in the 500m by finishing third.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old from Ocala, Fla. went 39.22 in her first heat. She was even better in her second run, going 39.04.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"\/\/vplayer.nbcsports.com\/p\/BxmELC\/nbcsports_embed\/select\/media\/pjyzRmWLOtnl\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">Your browser does not support iframes.<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games will be Jackson\u2019s first Olympics. \u201cI really wasn\u2019t expecting any of this, just coming in as a newbie, just trying to do the best I can,\u201d she said, smiling. \u201cI still don\u2019t even know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson becomes the third black athlete to make the U.S. Olympic speed skating team. She joins fellow long-tracker Shani Davis and short-tracker Maame Biney, who is originally from Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson is a former University of Florida materials science and engineering student and roller derby player for the Ocala Cannibals and Jacksonville RollerGirls.\u00a0\u201cA couple weeks ago, I was still in the 40s,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI think I hadn\u2019t even broken 40 [seconds] yet, so it\u2019s all happened really fast.\u201d<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2659 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/26904435_2063192307246384_3376042877878616713_n-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/26904435_2063192307246384_3376042877878616713_n.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/26904435_2063192307246384_3376042877878616713_n.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/26904435_2063192307246384_3376042877878616713_n.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/26904435_2063192307246384_3376042877878616713_n.jpg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s improving dramatically every time she steps on that ice,\u201d Bowe said. \u201cShe\u2019s at a point now where she can make those huge gains, so to see that two races in a row out here when the pressure is the highest is really promising for her and the sprint program for Team USA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">She first put on skates when she was eight years old as a member of a figure skating team in her hometown. Jackson was forced to quit after her coach left town to pursue her daughter&#8217;s Olympic dreams. Even as a figure skater, Jackson had a desire to go fast.\u00a0Soon after Jackson&#8217;s mother, Rita, met a speed skating coach at a diner.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2658 alignright\" style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heather-bergsma_brittany-bowe_erin-jackson_olympic-trials_gettyimages-901664882-300x169.jpg?resize=300%2C169\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heather-bergsma_brittany-bowe_erin-jackson_olympic-trials_gettyimages-901664882.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heather-bergsma_brittany-bowe_erin-jackson_olympic-trials_gettyimages-901664882.jpg?w=650&amp;ssl=1 650w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI won some races at the party on my little artistic skates and soon began attending speed practices. Thirteen years later I\u2019m still in love with the sport,\u201d Jackson said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who is Erin Jackson? Erin Jackson surprised herself and almost everyone else at the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trials, becoming an Olympian after just four months on ice. Coming from inline skating, Jackson qualified in the 500m by finishing third. The 25-year-old from Ocala, Fla. went 39.22 in her first heat. She was even better [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ampsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/gettyimages-901664674.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}