A 29-year-old Florida native and lifelong rollerblader became the first Black woman to win Team USA a gold medal in speed skating Sunday.
Erin Jackson earned her first Olympic medal in the women’s 500 meters speed skating at the Beijing Games, an event Team USA has not won since 1994. Jackson finished her lap in a mere 37.04 seconds.
It may seem unlikely that a skater who spent her life on rollerblades would be an Olympian on the ice, but Jackson quickly became a gold medal favorite. She made her Olympic debut four years ago in PyeongChang, having only transitioned to ice skating roughly a year earlier.
She was the first Black woman to make it onto Team USA as a speed skater.
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