Last night, CBS refused to air Stephen Colbert’s interview with Texas Democrat James Talarico after pressure from Trump. Colbert addressed the issue with his audience and released the clip online anyway.
RETWEET to thank Colbert for standing up for free speech!
Erin Jackson is 33 years old.
She was born on September 19, 1992, in Ocala, Florida, and was raised by her parents Tracy and Rita Jackson.
Her mother worked as a pharmacy technician and it was through that job that she met Renee Hildebrand, who would go on to become Erin's coach.
She attended Forest High School in Ocala, where she also competed in track athletics.
She graduated cum laude from the University of Florida with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering.
She began skating at age eight with figure skating, then transitioned to inline speed skating at age ten, joining the Ocala Speed Inline Racing Team.
Over the next 15 years she accumulated 47 national titles and 12 world championship medals in inline skating.
She was named the United States Olympic Committee Female Athlete of the Year for roller sports in 2012, 2013, and 2015.
She also competed professionally in roller derby, playing as a jammer for the Jacksonville RollerGirls.
In February 2017, at age 25, she tried long-track ice speed skating for the first time.
By January 2018 — four months into training on ice — she qualified for the United States Olympic team in the 500-meter event.
She finished 24th at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Heading into the 2022 Beijing Games, she was ranked first in the world in the women's 500-meter event.
At the U.S. Olympic Trials in Milwaukee, she slipped during her race and finished third — one spot short of qualifying.
Her longtime friend and teammate Brittany Bowe, who had won the event, gave up her spot to Jackson, stating that Jackson had earned the right to compete by virtue of her world-leading times.
At the 2022 Beijing Games, Jackson won the gold medal in the women's 500-meter event with a time of 37.04 seconds, beating Japan's Miho Takagi by 0.08 seconds.
With that victory she became the first Black woman from any country to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics, the first American woman to win the Olympic 500-meter event since Bonnie Blair in 1994, and the first American woman to win any speed skating gold since Chris Witty in 2002.
Since Beijing, she has won back-to-back overall World Cup titles in the 500-meter for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, and back-to-back gold medals at the 2024 and 2025 Four Continents Championships.
Between 2023 and 2025 she battled multiple herniated discs, gastrointestinal issues, and uterine fibroids requiring surgery, which affected her training load in the 1000-meter event.
She qualified automatically for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in November 2025.
Her teammates voted her to serve as the United States flag bearer at the 2026 Opening Ceremony, making her the first Black woman to bear the U.S. flag at the Winter Olympics.