Olympic speed skater Erin Jackson reflects on her historic gold medal as a Black woman: 'I just hope that it doesn’t take this long for the 2nd and the 3rd'

Erin Jackson on becoming the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport, at the 2022 Beijing Olympics

Video Transcript

ERIN JACKSON: I'm from Ocala, Florida. And there are actually three of us-- Paige Schwartzburg, Brittany Bowe, and Joey Mantia-- who won medals at the Olympics, who all come from the same town in Florida. All grew up on the same team with the same coach. Watching them kind of make that transition from in-line to ice before me was always pretty inspirational. I thought, oh, maybe one day, I could do that too.

I definitely imagine making it to the Olympics. I just wasn't sure how long it would take.

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My gold medal was the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in the Winter Games. Not just in speed skating, like, in the whole Winter Games. It's kind of bittersweet, because I'm happy to be the first, and I just hope that it doesn't take this long for the second and the third and the fourth. When I'm standing on the podium at the medal ceremony, and I put the medal around my neck. By this point, I'm already crying. Just walking out there and looking into the crowd, seeing all my teammates, thinking about my family, wishing my mom could be around to see this. It was just-- yeah, a really emotional moment. I was really happy, really proud.

Getting into speed skating definitely wasn't a natural transition for me. I've been a roller skater my whole life. And then from there, inline speed skating. A lot of inliners actually make that transition over to the ice. The main thing, for me, was just finding comfort on the ice, because it didn't feel like skating to me. Just in the beginning, really trying to break the habits that I had built all my life on roller skates and form new habits that work on ice. I think that's what really drew me to it, was just trying to defeat that challenge.

Speed skating can feel like a bunch of different things. Sometimes, it's scary. Coming into a corner at high speed, that was one of my fears to get over in the beginning. And then, other times, it just feels amazing. It feels like everything clicks. Speed skating is just fun. Very few Black athletes are in this sport. I don't feel any extra weight to, like, be an example, because I guess I already try to do that anyway. I'm just out there training, and trying to get better every day. And then hopefully, something I do can help add more diversity to this sport.

I'm actually going to be working with a woman who started a program in Washington State, and she helps women of color get involved in skiing and snowboarding, which I think is really awesome. I've been getting a lot of really cool messages from people from all over the world, from parents and kids. If people are inspired by me being the first Black woman to do something, I think that's really cool. If people are inspired by me being a woman who's done these things, that's awesome for me as well. I just hope to inspire more female first in the world.

What other firsts do I want to achieve? I want more gold, you know? I want to keep winning. I'm definitely looking forward to going another four years. I haven't been on the ice that long, and, maybe it's the perfectionist in me, but I looked at the video from my race, and I just see things that I need to fix. And I'm sure my coaches see things that I need to fix. It's been almost my lifetime since an American woman won the 500. Bonnie Blair in '94. I was born in '92. I hope it's not that long before the next one.

Well, I mean, hopefully, it's me again, you know, next time around. I don't know what other firsts. I just want to keep on doing what makes me happy, I guess. And if it happens to be a first, that's cool too.

[CHUCKLES]