Erin Jackson: the Sunshine State speed skater taking the winter sports world by storm

There’s something strange going on in Ocala, Florida.

In a city known as the 'Horse Riding Capital of the World', where the lush green pastures roll into each other to form an equine paradise, a quiet winter sports revolution has been taking place. Away from the Florida Horse Park, the official training centre for the USA equestrian team, Ocala has been breeding a different type of speed machine: Olympic speed skaters.

It’s undoubtedly an oddity that a city located slap bang in the middle of the Sunshine State, and where average winter temperatures are 29 degrees celsius, is developing some of the world’s best talent on the ice. However, at Beijing 2022, the hopes of a nation lie on the shoulders of these athletes as they make an assault on Olympic glory.

One of these Ocala skaters is Erin Jackson, a former inline champion who made the leap to speed skating on ice just months before competing at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

Now, after a meteoric rise in the sport, she is in top form and has the podium in her sights at Beijing 2022.

"I've been skating for as long as I remember," said Jackson in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com in October 2021. However, the 28-year-old Florida native isn't talking about ice skating, her first forays into the sport were on roller skates.

"I started out with those little plastic skates that you attach to your shoes and I grew up what's called a 'rink rat', just like the kids who always go to the rink on the weekends, skating around to music with your friends."

Soon Jackson graduated to artistic skating, a type of sport that has the characteristics of figure skating but on roller skates. But even though she enjoyed herself every time she laced up her skates, in truth,