BEIJING — Erin Jackson is never happier than when she is thinking. She holds two degrees and is on her way to a third. Her family lovingly calls her a nerd. She sometimes refers to her job—at which, on Sunday night, she was crowned best in the world—as “skating in circles.”
It was not surprising that she won the 500-meter speedskating event in 37.04 seconds, becoming the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics and the first American woman to win speedskating gold in two decades. What was surprising was what ran through her mind as she stood atop the podium afterward.