Olympics on hold for trials winner Lehman
Marquette student waits on reserve list
Emery Lehman won the men’s 5,000 meters on the opening day of the U.S. Olympic long-track speedskating trials Tuesday.
Now the Marquette University student has an agonizing wait to see if he’ll get to compete at that distance in South Korea.
The United States did not qualify an Olympic spot in the men’s 5K through World Cup competition and is third on a reserve list. Lehman’s chance to compete depends on whether other countries decline spots. Another factor is whether Russian skaters are able to compete.
“It’s not easy for the athletes to say, ‘Hang tight,’ ” said Chris Needham, chairman of U.S. Speedskating’s long-track committee.
Lehman, 21, a 2014 Olympian, also would have to make the U.S. team at another distance in order to skate the 5K in
Pyeongchang. He is racing in the 1,000 on Wednesday, the 1,500 on Saturday and the mass start on Sunday.
“Whether I skate at the Olympics in the (5,000) or not is not in my hands, so I just wanted to go out there and skate technically well and have a good race,” he said. “I think that happened, for the most part.”
The native of Oak Park, Ill., won the race in 6 minutes 27.90 seconds before a sellout crowd of 1,350 at the Pettit National Ice Center. Ian Quinn finished second in 6:32.95 and Jeffrey SwiderPeltz was third in 6:34.18.
KC Boutiette, 47, finished fourth. “I think my Pettit personal (best) was 6:28 and change on some really fast ice a few years ago,” said Lehman, a civil engineering major who is taking time off from school to pursue a spot on his second Olympic team. “So to be under 6:30 again is awesome. It’s a great feeling.”
One Olympic spot was determined Thursday, when Carlijn Schoutens won the women’s 3,000 in 4:14.02. The U.S. qualified one spot at that distance for Pyeongchang.
“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “I’m so happy I was able to grab the win and get the Olympic ticket. Every day I’ve been here in the last week for preparation I felt really good on my blades and I was confident going into the competition, but you obviously still have to do it. I’m really happy I was able to do it today.”
Schoutens was born in New Jersey but grew up in the Netherlands. She moved back to the United States in 2014 to skate.
Mia Manganello, making a comeback in speedskating after taking six years off to pursue a career in cycling, put up a time of 4:15.74 in the second-last pair. Schoutens raced in the final pair and edged Manganello by 1.71 seconds.
“As I got past the middle portion of the race, I felt pretty confident,” Schoutens said. “My legs were still there so then I just thought if I can carry this through, I’ll be fine. I had a feeling I had it in the bag but you obviously don’t want to count your chickens before they’ve hatched.”
Manganello barely missed the Olympic team in 2010 but has several races left to try to make this team.
“I have quite a bit more,” she said. “I’m debating on doing the 1,000 tomorrow. I’m also going to be doing the 5K, possibly, and also the 1,500 and the mass start. So, a lot of opportunities."
The Olympic trials continue Wednesday with the men’s and women’s 1,000 and run through Sunday. All but Thursday and Sunday are sellouts, with only a few hundred tickets left for those days, according to a Pettit Center official.
“The crowd was awesome,” Lehman said. “I’ve always known that if the Pettit were to have a big meet, a big crowd would show up just given the history of speedskating here. It was really, really fun hearing the crowd be really loud and cheering for you going around here.”