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Speed skater Erin Jackson was the first Black girl EVER to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics in 2022. But guess what? It’s insanely expensive to train and compete as an Olympian and you get paid an annual salary of exactly zero dollars to do it – unless you win a medal and even then you gotta make that paycheck last until the next Olympics. We sat down with Erin to talk about the price of being the best in the world, and how to make a living doing what you love.

This series was created in partnership with Flourish Ventures, an early-stage global investment firm backing mission-driven entrepreneurs and industry influencers working toward a fair finance system for all. Learn more at flourishventures.com.

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

You can find Erin on Instagram at @speedyj, on Twitter at @ErinJackson480, or at her website erin-jackson.net.

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To follow along with a transcript, go to lemonadamedia.com/show/ shortly after the air date.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Erin Jackson, Speaker 2, Speaker 1, Speaker 4, Speaker 3, X Mayo

Speaker 1  00:56

What do you think that you are the best in the world at?

 

Speaker 2  01:38

You should ask my boyfriend.

 

Speaker 3  01:42

I want to say, like bartering, like I’m a killer, like Facebook marketplace dealer, like I’m gonna get a good deal.

 

Speaker 4  01:53

What am I best in the world at? I think creating my own reality. I’m maybe not the best in the world at that, but I think I’m pretty good at kind of deciding what I want for myself and making it happen.

 

X Mayo  02:08

Hello, this is your captain speaking X Mayo. Welcome back to The Dough, a show about what it means to be the best in the world. The best what you ask anything. We’re here to talk to the best of the best at whatever they do. Twitch streamers check, lobster fishermen check, strip mall psychics check, have we talked to any of these people? No, that’s aspirational. If you know the best strip mall psychic in the country, DM me their number right now. Wait no, do that. Tony, get the fuck out of here. You can not be putting shit like this on a teleprompter. I don’t need all that shit in my all that shit in my DMs. Anyways, today we are going to be talking to a woman who was actually objectively the best in the world at something, Olympic gold medalist, Erin Jackson. Erin is a speed skater, so she won her last gold at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 where she skated 500 meters in 37.04 seconds. That’s four and a half football fields in less than 40 seconds. Dear God, and it was a historic win. Erin was the first black woman ever to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics, not just in the US in the world, okay? Because we as black people, we don’t really do all that winter shit, you know, we’re tropical people. Back in the 90s, it was so surprising to have black people at the Winter Olympics. They made a whole ass movie about the Jamaican niggas who learned a bobsled delightful film. Okay, cool. Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme. Come on, y’all, it’s bobsled, okay? It’s available now on Disney plus. But for real, being an Olympian is hard work, not to mention being a gold medalist. You gotta work out every day. You gotta eat right, you gotta dedicate your whole life to being the best. Erin started skating when she was eight years old, and she won her gold at 29 y’all, that is 21 years of hard work, and all that work doesn’t necessarily get rewarded the way it should. It’s insanely expensive to train and compete as an Olympian, and you get paid an annual salary of exactly zero fucking dollars to do it. So today, we’re gonna be talking with Erin about the financial ups and downs of being the world’s fastest woman on ice. Erin, welcome to the show.

 

Erin Jackson  04:27

Hey, thankhank you.

 

X Mayo  04:31

Okay, so we start off with getting a little tea from our guests every episode. So I would like to know what the fuck did you spend your money on this week?

 

Erin Jackson  04:38

Oh, this week, that’s a good question.

 

X Mayo  04:40

Could be small, it could be big. It could be a most significant purchase you made already.

 

Erin Jackson  04:46

Well, let me open up Amazon, and I can’t even keep track, because I have a little bit of an Amazon addiction. Love it. I bought a new doorbell for my dogs. That he can let me know when he wants to go outside a spoon rest, dog toys, belts, yeah, stuff like that.

 

X Mayo  05:09

Yeah, I had to get a lot of travel size stuff. So, like, just like, a lot of my face wash, makeup, different stuff. I’m traveling next week, and it’s just like, oh yeah, I’m not checking a bag, and I just need travel shit, because for travel period, yeah. So you grew up in a small town in Florida, you know, a tropical ass town. How the fuck did you end up skating with all these Norwegian white people?

 

Erin Jackson  05:33

Good question. Yeah, I started in Florida, right? We don’t have much ice there, but I got my start from inline skating, actually, from roller skating when I was younger in Florida, that was just kind of like the big scene. People would go and hang out at the skating rink, skate around to music, and hang out with their friends in the snack bar, that sort of thing. So yeah, I got started just roller skating for fun.

 

X Mayo  05:53

What made you make the transition from roller skating into ice skating?

 

Erin Jackson  05:56

The reason why there was, like a draw to switch over to ice is because inline skating is actually not an Olympic sport. And the team that I skated on back in Florida, everyone was really good. It was a really good team, and my teammates were world champions and things like that. And then they went on to switch over to ice to go to the Olympics. So I, you know, I was at home, and I watched them skating in the Olympics, and I thought that was super awesome. But still, I was holding out a little bit going to school. But eventually, yeah, after I graduated from college, I decided to give it a shot as well, just for the old Olympic dream, I guess.

 

X Mayo  06:31

Okay, Erin, just for the all Olympic dream, like we’re all out here being Olympians. It’s like 70 y’all, and Serena is six of them. Okay, so how much does it cost to be an Olympian, right? Because do you have to pay for rink time? Like, I’m sure you can’t have these regular escapes and then, you know, travel to all the tournaments and stuff. So how much does it cost?

 

Erin Jackson  06:52

Okay, let’s see. So before I made the Olympic team, most of these costs I had to cover. So then I actually started to think, like, I don’t know how I can afford to do this expensive sport. So I guess the main thing would be rank time is about 400 a month here in Salt Lake City. And then the suits, let’s see. I found some cheap suits that I raced in for like, $200 each. But I think they’re normally around 600-ish, um, and we need a few of those. The skates are close to three grand now because they’re custom, so you have to, like, go make an appointment with the boot maker and then get your foot custom molded and things like that. So those are about three grand now, I think when I got them, they were around 2500 but the price just keeps going up. Then the blades. You need at least two sets of blades, and those are around a grand, around 1000 each. Um, let’s see what else, just living I don’t know, like having to live out here, but I don’t know if that’s included, because I gotta live somewhere, but, um, yeah, I think those are kind of the main things. And then there’s just, like, a few other little subscription subscriptions that we need as well, like, for watches and stuff.

 

X Mayo  08:04

Okay, so, a million dollars.

 

Erin Jackson  08:06

Yes, a million dollars.

 

X Mayo  08:07

So $1.5 million

 

Erin Jackson  08:09

Plus tax, shipping and handling all that.

 

X Mayo  08:11

Yeah okay, so, Erin, so, if you’re someone who is wants to be a speed skater, and you’re not an Olympian like yourself, and you’re just, like, coming up, you just have to work a regular job to get, like, do the speed skaters. There’s no speed skater fund from the government, right? Like, there’s you just have to hustle and do what’s necessary to pay for yourself.

 

Erin Jackson  08:31

And yeah, so the main thing is actually speeches. I go around and speak for, you know, at corporate conventions and things like that. And that’s how I actually make money. And right after the Olympics was a really big year for me with speeches. It was also my worst season of racing right after the Olympics because I was doing so many speeches that, you know, it cut into the training. But, you know, my coach understood, you know, there’s like a like I was saying, you know, it’s every two years, basically. So my coach understood that there’s like a time to actually make enough money to last the next four years. So yeah, he was really understanding about that. And yeah, that’s just kind of how it goes. And then it just kind of like levels off from there. So like last year, I know I didn’t have as many this year I’ve got only a few booked, but yeah, hopefully that’ll pick up again as we get closer to the next Winter Games.

 

X Mayo  09:19

Yes, Spellman, call our girl period.

 

Erin Jackson  09:23

It’s kind of hard because training is basically a full time job, we’re training probably six hours a day in the main season. But then in the preseason, the hours are even longer because we’re getting like that. We’re like, building our base in the summer. But yeah, I feel like it’s mainly a sport that people with money get into to begin with. I was talking about this with one of my teammates from back in Florida, and we’re like, we are not like these people. You know, these people are born into money. They have parents with millions and things like that. So, yeah, it’s a little bit different for the people who don’t come from money.

 

X Mayo  09:56

Yes, because systemic racism is in every fabric of society? Yes, it’s fucked up.

 

Erin Jackson  10:05

Oh, yeah.

 

X Mayo  10:06

So, Erin, so what do you get paid? Because I know the US pays gold medalists, like 37,500 but that’s only if you win, right? So do they help you out with like travel fees or stipends or anything?

 

Erin Jackson  10:18

Yes, so the US feed skating team pays for all of our travel, as long as it’s not to a qualifying event. So I guess maybe that’s complicated. So if we’re qualifying for the team, we have to pay our own way to get there, and our own accommodations and things like that. But then once we make a team, then the actual like World Cup, the world competitions are all covered.

 

X Mayo  10:37

Okay.

 

Erin Jackson  10:38

So I have to pay for basically two trips a year, and all the Olympic sports in the US are actually not government funded, because a lot of other countries do have government funding, which is really nice, but I think we’re one of only three countries that don’t have any government funding, so we just rely on corporate sponsorships and things like that. But if you are, let’s see if you’re in a certain tier I’ll try to explain it like in the least confusing way possible. But we’re throughout our like competitive season. We’re aiming to be like tier one, tier two or tier three, and then those tiers determine how much you get paid for the following year. So I’m currently tier one, and I believe that’s 2200 a month, or something like that. But then that’s only for nine months of the year. So then the other three months, which I’m currently in right now, you just kind of have to, like, twiddle your thumbs and budget and so yeah, we only get paid for like, what they call our actual, like, competitive season, versus, like our whole training season. But yeah, so then tier two. I’m not sure what tier two is, but, yeah, it just kind of goes down from there.

 

X Mayo  11:44

I know that’s right and she said, I’m the best. I don’t know. I’m one, I don’t know what, two, three and four, dude, but bitch, I’m number one. I don’t I’m a winner. I know that’s right. Okay, so, but Erin, you know, 37,500 that’s an oddly, weirdly specific amount, right? And I feel like you could, like, maybe put, like, you know, put some shit aside. Maybe do a down payment on a house, probably in Milwaukee, not in LA, but that’s not exactly like, you know, let’s head to Bali and ball out money. So what do you do with the prize money? I’m assuming now that you talked about this, you just save it or, like, do you like, okay, look this. I can ball out for a little five grand and then I save the rest or, what do you do?

 

Erin Jackson  12:19

Oh, yeah, I try to save it as best I can. I got this, like, high yield savings account that’s getting, like, 5% so I try to put as much as I can into there. But when I was younger, I always said, if I have enough money, you know, I would buy my mom a house, and I’ll buy my dad a truck, like his, his favorite truck, and, you know, they were married and everything. So the house would be for both of them too because, you know, one time I said that, and then one of my friends was like, Oh, that’s not fair your mom gets a whole house and your dad only gets a truck. But, yeah, they’re still married in every .

 

X Mayo  12:48

I love that because I thought that too, because we come from trauma. All your homegirls who you’re talking to, a girl we don’t know about nobody’s your parents together, and this in 2024?

 

Erin Jackson  13:01

Right?

 

X Mayo  13:01

And you out here just skating and having all this joy and all this beautiful skin. Oh, you got all your teeth, they all white. It’s like, Erin, are you a unicorn?

 

Erin Jackson  13:10

Maybe?

 

X Mayo  13:11

Yeah so, okay, wait, so that 37,500 Erin, does that get taxed? Because that’s not fair.

 

Erin Jackson  13:18

It does, II think.

 

X Mayo  13:19

Oh wow.

 

Erin Jackson  13:21

Yeah, all of our payments get taxed, yeah.

 

X Mayo  13:23

Okay, do they clip half? They taking a percentage or?

 

Erin Jackson  13:28

I don’t know what the brackets are. It’s just by your total income, so it just gets lumped in with all your other like yearly income, and then you just get taxed on that bracket. But yeah, I used it to get my dad a truck after the Olympics so.

 

X Mayo  13:42

Papa yeah, I would do my mom and dad are not together, so my mom would be getting a house and my dad would be getting a truck, absolutely.

 

Erin Jackson  13:52

Yeah, I mean, my mom, she actually passed away when I was in high school.

 

X Mayo  13:56

Oh, my God, I’m so sorry.

 

Erin Jackson  13:58

Oh, that’s all right.

 

X Mayo  13:58

My condolences for real. I I have no idea how what pain that is, and I pray to never experience it. But just to see how amazing of a young lady you are, I think is a testament to her racing you so she’s living through you, for sure. My next question is, like, you know, they say these as gold medals, right? Are they really gold? Like, could you dented like, if you drop it, or listen, Erin, if you ever in a pickle, hit the pawn shop, right? You know, give you 37 500 for sure.

 

Erin Jackson  14:30

I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s worth. Actually, it’s not full gold. I know it’s gold plated, but ish gold, ish gold adjacent, yeah, my, one of my teammates actually dropped it immediately after I after I got it. So that was, yeah, it’s very dentable.

 

X Mayo  14:49

Y’all, I am absolutely enraged fake gold medals. What? My sis is the best speed skater on the planet, and you give her a fake gold medal, that’s to ghetto with shit I ever heard of. Listen, anyways, when we come back, we’re gonna talk about what it’s like for Erin to get sponsored by Toyota. Now don’t miss that, because I know they ain’t cheap enough, okay.

 

15:30

So we were talking about, like, funding and sponsorships. I would love to know like, you know, I know some of your funding and your sponsors include, like, Toyota and Bot, which is a rollerblade company, but what do those deals look like? Are you just getting by? Do they? Is it in conjunction with, like, you do it at post, like, how does that work?

 

Erin Jackson  18:24

Yes, so with Toyota, I get a car, which is nice. I’ve got the, I have the rap for Prime. It’s kind of like a Prius. It’s a plug in hybrid.

 

X Mayo  18:35

It’s the, it’s the SUVs of Priuses, yeah.

 

Erin Jackson  18:37

Right, yep so it’s great. I get like, 50-40, to 50 miles on the battery before I switch to gas. It’s really awesome. And then, yep, so I get a salary as well. But I think my deal with Toyota actually ends in September, and then I’ve got to go out and find a new one. But yeah, Toyota kind of moving away from the Olympic space, and they’ve gone into, like, the pro sports and things like that. So I’ve got Toyota through September, and then with Bonds, I’ve been with them since, I think 2009 so it’s been a really long standing partnership with them. And then, yeah, it’s not, not a whole lot there. It’s just because in in inline skating, it’s, again, not a super big sport, so I get even less from from inline but yeah, it’s still it’s an awesome family to be a part of, though.

 

X Mayo  19:24

When you say that Toyota is up in September, does that mean they’re taking the car back?

 

Erin Jackson  19:29

I fear, yes, they kind of give us an option to buy it out, like at its current value. So I’ll kind of see what value we’re looking at, but I really love the car, so yeah, hopefully I’ll be able to buy it out.

 

X Mayo  19:46

Okay, well, prayers out that they don’t do that, because I don’t need you out here trying to figure out how to pay for they already not giving you enough money for inline skating. You’re already the fucking best. Absolutely not Toyota. You up if you’re listening what you are. Because you make a decision and you subscribe to The Dough, do not take away Erin Jackson’s car. God bless you. Merry Christmas.

 

Erin Jackson  20:06

Yeah, Toyota’s been great, though they’ve been great, yeah, my Toyota shirt so.

 

X Mayo  20:11

I love that. I love every one of my cars. My brother’s gonna have a Toyota when he goes away to school. Like, I love Toyotas as well. They’re great, reliable, phenomenal. So you’re a first generation college student. Shout out to you. I was a dropout. It just wasn’t in my ministry. But you have three guys, listen, Uno dos, tres fucking degrees. Okay, you have three. You got a degree in, listen, material science and engineering and computer science, and you’re working on one in exercise science?

 

Erin Jackson  20:42

That’s right.

 

X Mayo  20:43

Okay, so do you have a day job? Aaron, like, when, when could you earn so much money working in any of those fields? Like, what keeps you skating?

 

Erin Jackson  20:51

Well, I don’t know. I guess I love skating. I don’t know. I feel like I want to keep doing it until I can’t, like, until I get too old to do this but yeah, I mean, I’m not gonna be able to do it forever, so there definitely is a an expiration date on it. I think I’ve got maybe one more Olympics in me but.

 

X Mayo  21:10

After skating, what do you see as a life for you?

 

Erin Jackson  21:14

Yeah, hopefully just getting into biomechanics. So I really love to work with prosthetics. So from being a part of like the Toyota team, I get to meet a lot of the Paralympians and just kind of hear their stories. And I think it would be really awesome work with prosthetics, and maybe even with Paralympians like that would be really awesome.

 

X Mayo  21:32

Oh, my God. I love that. And you have such a good spirit and are so kind. So I think that having you work within that space, I think they’ll be great. 2026 the next Olympic Challenge is in Italy  right?

 

Erin Jackson  21:46

In Italy, yeah.

 

X Mayo  21:47

And what part?

 

Erin Jackson  21:48

Supposedly, Milan.

 

X Mayo  21:49

Oh my god.

 

Erin Jackson  21:50

Yeah, so that’ll be nice.

 

X Mayo  21:53

Are you ready?

 

Erin Jackson  21:54

I’m not ready yet. I mean, I’ve got two more years.

 

X Mayo  21:58

Right, you’re training look at me. I’m just like, oh my god, what are you gonna wear?

 

Erin Jackson  22:03

I’m gonna wear this really awesome skin tight suit with a hood. I look like a giant thumb, it’s great.

 

X Mayo  22:09

Honestly, wait, but you would be on trend. Why everybody’s gonna that’s just fashion girl. Y’all go Google some pictures of Erin. She looks like a fucking ninja in that suit. Bruh, anyways, don’t touch that dial. We’ll be back in a sec.

 

23:20

What did it mean to you to be the first individual black gold medalist at the Winter Olympics? Like I just think that that’s so iconic, and I would love to know what you hope black girls hope to take away from that.

 

Erin Jackson  25:18

Yeah, it was actually really surprising when I heard that because I didn’t know it until I saw a headline about it, and then I thought, oh, that’s, you know, kind of hard to believe that, you know, in the history of the the Winter Olympics, but my main thought was that, you know, hopefully people will see that and, you know, maybe have some sort of inspiration or just motivation. So then hopefully we’ll have, you know, the second, the third, the fourth, coming up really quickly. So yeah, that’s kind of my goal that people will see it and then get out here and try these winter sports because, you know, yeah, that’s what Felicia Rashad said, cold can be a little daunting so

 

X Mayo  25:49

Yeah, no, I said that in the intro. I was like, listen, she’s the first my girl who willfully win in the cold.

 

X Mayo  25:54

Okay, so, Aaron, this is my last question. I feel like you’re my new best seed. I don’t want it to end, okay do you have any financial advice for your fellow athletes listening to the podcast?

 

Erin Jackson  25:54

Yeah.

 

Erin Jackson  26:05

Financial advice? Yes, I would say plan. You know like, have a plan because, I mean, depending on what sort of athlete you are, like in in the Olympic sports, we might not make a whole lot of money, so you really have to make it work, you know. Like, plan it out, make it last, things like that. Especially with the way the Olympic cycle works, it kind of switches every two years. So like, right now, most of the sponsorships are in the summer field, and then after the Summer Games, and it switches back to the Winter Games. So yeah, so you kind of have to, like, make your money Last throughout the whole four years, when really the focus is only on getting sponsorships in two years. So, yeah, I would say, have a plan. Make sure you’re saving a lot. Put your money in something other than just a regular savings account, like if you can invest it in some way, or get it at least into a high yield savings account, yeah, just that sort of thing. And you also have to live your life, though. I mean, there’s also, if you just save it all, then sure, you might have a lot of money when you’re older, but you also kind of have to live your life when you’re young. And yeah, so I don’t want to say only save, but, you know, save enough for your future, while also having fun in your 20s and 30s, or however old you are.

 

X Mayo  27:17

Yes, I’m gonna take that advice, because for me, you know, as fuck it we ball could die tomorrow, I know it’s not easy, right? You know, and I know it’s hard to be the only one out there, but we love you and we see you, and you make us so proud. So I’m so excited to see you take home the fucking gold.

 

Erin Jackson  27:27

Thank you.

 

X Mayo  27:28

In 2026 for sure.

 

Erin Jackson  27:33

Thank you so much. Thishis has been awesome.

 

X Mayo  27:36

Tell the people they can find you.

 

Erin Jackson  27:38

Oh, you can find me on Instagram @speedyj I guess that’s the main one. I have a Tiktok I don’t have the Tiktok app, though. I didn’t set it up myself, so I don’t know how to grow.

 

X Mayo  27:48

It’s going down. It’s fine.

 

Erin Jackson  27:49

Yeah, okay.

 

X Mayo  27:51

It’s going they finna ban it.

 

Erin Jackson  27:52

Cool so ignore the Tiktok. And then I’m on Twitter, not super active on that either. ErinJackson480, and then Facebook, I guess people don’t really use that anymore, but yeah, I’m there too, just Erin Jackson.

 

X Mayo  28:06

BBut for the aunties and the uncles, listen.

 

Erin Jackson  28:08

Yep, you can find me on there is Aaron Jackson. I’ve got a page, and I have a profile on a page. However, that works. I don’t know, I’m not huge on social media, but that’s part of the thing with the sponsorships, you have to be really big on it. So I’m trying to I’m trying to be more active.

 

X Mayo  28:22

Yes, and we gonna like and comment and we support you and shout out to Toyota and don’t make my girl buy a car. Okay. Yes, it was such a pleasure Erin, you are just a damn delight, and I look forward to seeing you rise and all the things that you do in your future.

 

Erin Jackson  28:38

Thank you.

 

X Mayo  28:40

Well, folks, this has been an incredibly inspiring interview, but now I gotta skate. Get it skate. Well, okay, damn tough crowd, please tip your bartenders. No, but seriously, Erin is a huge inspiration, a little black girl, magic roller skater from Ocala, Florida, who grows up to be the fastest ice skater in the world, and then gets into making prosthetics for disabled athletes. You know, Disney will eat that shit up. Hit me up if you need a Hollywood business manager, Erin, I know a girl, but even without the Disney movie, there’s a lot Erin has to be proud of. Yeah, the metal and the rav4 are nice, but I think the most impressive thing about her is that she figured out what she was into and has been able to build her life around it. If you do what you love and work hard at it, the money will come unless what you love is pyramid schemes, you bitches are gonna be broke forever. Anyways, I really gotta go. Have a good week and I’ll see you next time, bye.ye.

 

CREDITS  29:38

There’s more of The Dough with Lemonada Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content, like blooper reels from our recording sessions. Subscribe now and Apple podcast. The Dough is a Lemonada original. I’m your host X Mayo. This series was created in partnership with Flourish Ventures. This series is presented by the Margaret Casey Foundation. Our producers are Claire Jones, Rachel Pilgrim and Tony Williams. Kristen Lepore is our senior producer. Mix and Sound Design by Bobby Woody. Original Music by Pat Mesiti-Miller. Jackie Danziger is our Vice President of narrative content. Executive Producers include me X Mayo, Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Help others find our show by leaving us a rating and writing a review. You can follow me on IG  @80dollarsandasuitcase and Lemonada @lemonadamedia across all social platforms, follow The Dough wherever you get your podcast or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership, thanks so much for listening. See you next week, bye.