cala Olympians The
Three native Ocalans are medal favorites at the 2022 Beijing Olympics in speed skating. The notion that a trio of Floridians rising to the top of winter sports is fascinating the world … and fortunate for the U.S. Olympic Team. The Ocala Olympians — Brittany Bowe, Erin Jackson and Joey Mantia — all have roots in inline skating and all have been to the Olympics before. Now, with the world watching, they will try to win on the biggest of sport’s stages. BY BRAD ROGERS
Brittany Bowe on top and in search of gold
B
eing the center of attention in the sports arena is nothing new for Brittany Bowe. At the age of two she performed dribbling exhibitions during halftime of high school games coached by her father, Mike. Later, she was an All-Star pitcher on a boys Little League baseball team. She was pretty good at soccer, too, earning a spot on a statewide traveling team … for boys.
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| FEB 2022 | OCALAMAGAZINE.COM
When Bowe started high school, she had to give up soccer to play basketball because the seasons overlapped. She ended up being a three-time Marion County girls high school basketball player of the year and earning a scholarship to Florida Atlantic University. In between baseball and soccer and basketball, Bowe was racking up victories on
the national and global stages as a competitive inline skater, under the watchful eye of Ocala skating coach Renee Hildebrand. She started inline skating at age 8 and would go on to win a national championship at age 10 and 32 world championship medals between 2002 and 2008. So, when Bowe finished college at FAU in 2010, she initially planned to go to Europe to play basketball – the sport she describes as her “first love” – with the hope of making it
