MILWAUKEE – Erin Jackson came into the Olympic trials having already secured a spot in the speed skating 500 meters.
Now she’s got one in the 1,000 meters, too.
Jackson won the 1,000 meters — and the automatic Olympic spot that goes with that title — Saturday, blistering the second half of her race and finishing with a time of 1:14.63. That was 0.39 seconds ahead of Brittany Bowe. Mia Manganello was third, almost two seconds behind Jackson.
‘Just a really big relief,’ Jackson said in a post-race interview with NBC. ‘A few days ago, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to race it at all because of a hamstring injury. … I didn’t feel anything (today) in my hamstring.’
Though Bowe didn’t automatically qualify by finishing second, U.S. Speed Skating quickly announced that she, too, is going to Milano Cortina.
The Americans have two quota spots in the 1,000 meters. But because they can only send a total of six women to the Olympics, and Jackson and Manganello had pre-qualified with their World Cup performances, U.S. Speed Skating wanted to make sure it had enough places before awarding that second spot in the 1,000 meters.
Jackson’s win in the 1,000 meters actually helped that. Because she was already guaranteed one of those six spots, U.S. Speed Skating did not have to use one to send a skater it didn’t plan to.
‘In my mind, I’ll be going to the Olympics,’ Bowe said before U.S. Speed Skating’s announcement.
This will be the third Olympics for Jackson and fourth for Bowe. They will both be medal contenders in multiple distances. Jackson’s best race is actually the 500 meters, where she is the reigning Olympic champion. Bowe is currently ranked third in the World Cup standings in the 1,000 meters and fifth in the 1,500 meters.