The Salt Lake City resident won gold in the 500-meter race Sunday
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Erin Jackson (USA) celebrates winning the gold medal in the speedskating women’s 500m at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022.
With her gold-medal performance in the 500-meters Sunday, she became the first Black woman to claim Olympic victory in long-track speed skating.
Jackson, a Salt Lake City resident, set the winning time of 37.04 seconds in the second-to-last heat at the Ice Ribbon. Miho Takagi of Japan (37.12) earned silver and Russia’s Angelina Golikova (37.21) collected the bronze.
Jackson is the top-ranked skater in the world at this distance, but she almost didn’t get the chance to race in Beijing. She slipped at the Olympic trials and took third, which might have kept her off the team if teammate Brittany Bowe didn’t volunteer to give up her spot to Jackson, who like Bowe hails from Ocala, Fla.
Bowe got to race anyway after a redistribution of spots gave the United States a third position. A favorite to win a medal in the 1,000, she took 16th (38.04) Sunday. Kimi Goetz, who finished second at the Team USA trials, was 18th (38.25).
“Words can’t explain how happy I am,” Bowe said. “She deserves to be here. She’s an Olympic champion.”
Jackson’s Olympic medal is the first in an individual race for an American skater since 2010.
