Brittany Bowe and Erin Jackson: A story of Olympic sportmanship

Erin Jackson will have thought her chances of making Beijing 2022 were over when she slipped in the 500m long-track Speed Skating trial.

It was a seemingly devastating blow for the woman ranked first in the world.

However, long-time friend Brittany Bowe, who had finished first in the trial and qualified in other events, gave up her spot in the 500m race so Jackson could compete.

Perhaps in a showing of good karma, Team USA received another spot in the 500m, so Bowe and Jackson will be able to line up alongside each other.

They will both feature in the Olympic 500m event on Sunday (13 February) at the National Speed Skating Oval at 21:56 Beijing time (14:56 CET, 5:56 PST)

Speaking to Olympics.com before the Games, Jackson said: "I was expecting to win the Olympic trials. So then to have that misstep was kind of devastating, you know, because I was looking forward to having a good race.”

"Although I won that race, I didn't feel victorious at all," Bowe added. "My heart and mind just started racing as to like, 'How are we going to get Erin onto this team?' So, it was a very deflated atmosphere in the rink.”

She continued: "We connected that evening when the event concluded. We just met up for a brief moment, and I just needed to tell Erin that at the end of the day, if it comes down to it, she can have my spot.

"I thought she earned it and she deserved it over her performance from the first four World Cups. And, you know, just hoping to give her a little bit of comfort and peace of mind to get a couple minutes of sleep that night, knowing that if I had anything to do it, she'd be going to Beijing."

The pair both grew up in Ocala, Florida, and trained on the same inline speed skating team there - though Jackson is four years