MILWAUKEE — Emery Lehman is an incredible Olympic story.
The 5000 at the U.S Speedskating Trials is not only the longest race, but it was the closest race.
Lehman finished third. He took parts of 2018 and 2019 off to finish his civil engineering degree at Marquette. The mental break has paid off incredibly.
"So now between the six 5ks we've skated, we've gone Casey, Emery, Ethan. We've gone Casey, Ethan, Emery. We've gone Emery, Ethan, Casey. Emery, you know, Casey, Ethan. And now we've gone Ethan, Casey, Emery," Lehman says. "I think that was the closest race between all of the 12 races skated at Trials, including the mass start. I don't think any other race finished that closely between first, not only first and second, but first and third."
Lehman is motivated after finishing second to last in the last Olympic games.
"You know, you go there. You skate second to last and you know that man, that's not who I am," Lehman says. "Four years prior to this when I was 17, I was middle of the pack. Our coach, Gabriel Gerard who was based in Calgary after the last Olympics, I wanted to work with him after the last games. He saw a lot of potential in me, which I liked. He reached out to me. Not many people do that after someone gets second to last place at the Olympics. Obviously, with all six of us having made the team (and) four of those people being first time Olympians. He is something special."
