Erin Jackson wins 500m at speed skating World Cup season opener

Olympic champion Erin Jackson notched a bounce-back 500m victory at the speed skating World Cup season-opening stop in Nagano, Japan.

Jackson clocked 37.78 seconds on Sunday, edging Dutchwoman Dione Voskamp by six hundredths. American Kimi Goetz was third.

That came two days after Jackson placed ninth in a 500m in Nagano.

Jackson, 32, now has 12 career individual World Cup wins, all in the 500m.

Last season, Jackson captured the World Cup season title in the distance by winning four the 10 races on the circuit. She also placed fifth at the world championships.

World 500m champion Femke Kok of the Netherlands did not compete in Nagano this weekend as she has been slowed by a viral infection.

Since winning Olympic gold in 2022, Jackson has dealt with herniated discs in her lower back.

Going into this season, Jackson said she has had a medical issue for about three months, according to Olympics.com.

“We’ve been kind of diligently doing a lot of testing to figure out the cause of it,” she said, according to the report. “It’s kind of really been affecting my energy levels, especially when it comes to competition.”

The World Cup season continues next weekend — live on Peacock — at the 2022 Olympic oval in Beijing.