Beijing, China

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Erin Jackson, Kimi Goetz, Austin Kleba, Yu Ting Huagn, Mihaela Hogas Beijing 2022©GettyImages 1368156740 (L-R) Erin Jackson (USA), Kimi Goetz (USA), Austin Kleba (USA), Yu Ting Huagn (CHN) and Mihaela Hogas (ROU  skate during a speed skating practice session ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Getty Images

No matter the result, the Beijing 2022 Women’s 500m contains one of those stories that make the Olympic Games just that little more special than any other championships. It’s about Olympic spirit. After Erin Jackson (USA) messed up her race at the USA Olympic Trials, teammate Brittany Bowe sacrificed her qualifying spot. Being the favorite doesn’t make it easier for Jackson, who faces a highly competitive field, and as her hiccup at the trials showed, even the smallest mistake can be deadly in the 500m.

Flood of emotions
Arriving in Beijing, Erin Jackson (USA) still found it hard to believe she would actually get the opportunity to chase an Olympic dream she believed she had blown. “I had a job to do and I failed to do it, plain and simple,” Jackson said of her performance in the 500m at the Trials, when an error on the second straight dropped her outside the automatic qualification places. The 2015 and 2016 World Sprint Champion Brittany Bowe (USA), made no such mistake and grabbed the win, only to turn round and hand her spot in Beijing to her fellow Floridian.

Brittany Bowe, Austin Kleba, Erin Jackson, Kimi Goetz Beijing 2022©GettyImages 1367765809

(L-R) Erin Jackson (USA), Brittany Bowe (USA), Austin Kleba(USA), and Kimi Goetz (USA) skate during a speed skating practice session ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China. © Getty Images

“When she first told me she would have my back I hugged her and hugged her, and as I hugged her, I was trying not to cry,” Jackson said. “It was a flood of emotions, where you don’t really know what you feel.” Bowe, a specialist in the 1000m and 1500m, felt that Jackson had “earned the right” to be in Beijing after her four World Cup wins earlier this season. “I am glad she would say something like that, but I feel it would be a strange thing for me to say because technically I didn’t qualify,” the 29-year-old Skater said.

Jackson has spent most of her sporting career, and indeed life, looking up to Bowe, having first watched her on the track on inline skates as a wide-eyed 10-year-old. Less than four years apart in age, the pair has followed similar sporting paths, both winning inline world championship medals before moving on to the ice. The PyeonChang 2018 Olympics were Jackson’s first, only just having transferred to the ice the year before. She came in 24th at 2.26s behind winner Kodaira Nao (JPN), who beat defending Champion Lee Sang-Hwa (KOR) to silver.

Many contenders
Lee (KOR) quit in 2019, but Kodaira (JPN) is still going strong. The 35-year-old athlete is only one of the many title contenders at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. This season Kodaira won one World Cup race and she finished second four times.

Kodaira Nao  Speed Skating World Cup Stavanger 2021©AFP 1236663496

Nao Kodaira (JPN) competes during the 1000m Women's competition of the 2021 Speed Skating World Cup in Stavanger, Norway.© AFP

After not having had the chance to compete at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, the athletes representing the Russian Olympic Committee are also in the mix for the podium spots in Beijing. Reigning world Champion Angelina Golikova, Olga Fatkulina and Daria Kachanova are ranked second, fourth and eighth in this season’s World Cup.

Poland’s Andzelika Wójcik also put her name on the favorite’s list, when she took her career first World Cup gold in a new national record and the world’s fourth season time at the World Cup in Salt Lake City on December 5, 2021. “It’s a real good feeling,” she then said. “Until now, I didn't think I could make it (winning a World Cup race), but everything is possible.”

Wüst and Nuis as inspiration
After starting her World Cup career with a four race winning streak, 2020 and 2019 World Junior Champion Femke Kok (NED) entered the senior ranks with a blast last season.

Femke Kok Speed Skating OWG 2022 ©AFP 1238151216

Femke Kok (NED) takes part in a training session at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on February 3, 2022, ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.© AFP

This season she only took one bronze medal in the World Cup series, but last January she bounced back winning gold at the European Championships in Heerenveen (NED). In Beijing, Kok shares an apartment with teammates Ireen Wüst and Kjeld Nuis, who already retained their Olympic 1500m titles last Monday and Tuesday. “When you see that, you can only think, wow, I want that too,” Kok said on Friday. “I’ve been here for quite a while now, and I’m really eager to skate a race.”

Men’s Team Pursuit
Before the Women take the ice for the 500m, the Men will skate their quarter final races in the Team Pursuit. The semi-finals and finals are scheduled for Tuesday February 15, 2022.