In speed skater Erin Jackson’s stunning success story, here are chapter and verse

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In speed skater Erin Jackson’s stunning success story, here are chapter and verse

There are so many compelling parts of Erin Jackson’s story it is hard to know which to begin with.

Do you start with Jackson being such a good inline skater she was a four-time world medalist named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s female roller athlete of the year three times?

Or her making the 2018 U.S. Olympic team in long track speed skating about five minutes after she shifted from wheels to blades?

(OK, it took her a little longer, but you get the idea.)

Or her being the first Black woman to make a U.S. Olympic team in long track?

Or her doing that despite coming to the 2018 Olympic trials without having met the qualifying time for the ensuing PyeongChang Winter Games.

Or her getting so many college degrees in so many subjects that Jackson jokingly (or not) thinks she should include “school” when asked to list her hobbies?

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Using new recognition from social media, Elladj Baldé champions skaters of color

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Using new recognition from social media, Elladj Baldé champions skaters of color

Figure skater Elladj Baldé and his fiancée, dancer-choreographer Michelle Dawley, were driving in their Calgary, Alberta, neighborhood in mid-December when they noticed a patch of open ice in a field. It was deep into the pandemic lockdown, when places to skate were hard to come by, and Baldé, who had his skates in the car, wanted to commemorate the find.

“Let’s make a video,” Baldé said.

As Dawley recorded on an iPhone, Baldé pulled on his skates, ran out of his car across snow-covered grass and onto the ice, did a celebratory backflip, then some hip-hop dance moves. His open plaid shirt flapped over a hoodie, and his enthusiasm poured out.

The recording took 10 minutes, from filming to laying in music by Rihanna. It became 20 seconds on TikTok, where Baldé said he had only a couple hundred followers at the time.

That – and Baldé’s life – would change quickly.

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Smith and Carlos to represent for Team USA. Right on.

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Smith and Carlos to represent for Team USA. Right on.

It was going to be just a gesture of reconciliation, a long overdue welcome back for sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, an invitation for them to be part of the Olympic family in the United States again after nearly 50 years as institutional outcasts.

Now, thanks to an accident of timing and the good intentions of the U.S. Olympic Committee leadership, it can be so much more.

There is a backstory here, and I will talk about it later.  But, right up front, it should be said that the USOC’s asking the two 1968 Mexico City medalists to be U.S. Olympic ambassadors and to accompany members of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic teams on their White House visit Thursday is an important statement in these troubled times for our nation.

“The conversation they started in 1968 is still relevant today.  They are still relevant today,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said.

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For African-American Water Polo Goalie Ashleigh Johnson, The Medium Is The Message: Everyone Into The Pool

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Swimming gold medalist Simone Manuel is not the only African-American woman with a landmark achievement in a Rio Olympic pool.

Water polo goalie Ashleigh Johnson also has made history for black women in the water, whether she wins a medal or not – and her team has a perfect (4-0) record going into Wednesday afternoon’s Olympic semifinal against Hungary.

Manuel, 20, of suburban Houston, became the first African-American woman to win an individual swimming gold medal. In her reaction to that moment of triumph in the 100-meter freestyle, she also won worldwide acclaim with an emotional and eloquent acknowledgement of those black swimmers who had inspired her and her desire to inspire others.

Johnson, 21, of far exurban Miami, is the first black woman to represent the United States in Olympic water polo.

She also hopes her presence will have an “if-you-can-see-it, you-can-be-it” effect in motivating other African-American kids to learn to swim, whether or not it leads them to compete in one of the sports.

FOR MY COMPLETE STORY ON TEAMUSA.ORG, CLICK HERE