Lehman is unhappy with slow 5k time
GANGNEUNG, South Korea - Emery Lehman went into the 5,000-meter long-track speedskating race at the Pyeongchang Olympics with realistic expectations Sunday. Deep down, he knew he wasn’t going to win a medal, but there was no reason to think he couldn’t lower his best time for a sealevel track.
At the U.S. Olympic trials in Milwaukee last month, he won the 5k with a time of 6 minutes 27.9 seconds. He then prepared well at a two-week preOlympics camp at the Pettit National Ice Center, so certainly something under 6:27 on similar ice was well within reach.
But Lehman, 21, who put his studies at Marquette University on hold to make a second Olympic team, crossed the finish line in a disappointing 6:31.16.
“In Milwaukee, I skate usually anywhere between 6:27 and 6:33,” he said. “So this is definitely on the slower end of what I was hoping for.”
Dutch great Sven Kramer became the first man to win three gold medals in the same long-track race and broke his own Olympic record in the process.
Kramer, who also won gold in the previous two editions of the Winter Games, finished in 6:09.76, beating the record he set in Sochi four years ago by exactly one second.
It was Kramer’s eighth Olympic medal overall, a record for male speedskaters. He hasn’t lost a 5k in international competition in six years.
World record-holder Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada won the silver medal by the narrowest of margins – twothousands of a second – over Sverre Lunde Pedersen of Norway.
Skating in the same pair, both crossed the line in 6:11.61 so the time had to be carried out to the thousandths. Bloemen officially finished in 6:11.616, Pedersen in 6:11.618. The finish-line photo showed the toe of Bloeman’s skate crossing first, but by no more than an inch.
Bloemen set the world record of 6:01.86 at a World Cup in Salt Lake City in December.
Lehman finished 21st out of 22 skaters. His slower-than-anticipated time followed by one day Carlijn Schoutens’ disappointing performance in the women’s 3,000.
“Going into the race, I was talking to my coach, I wasn’t feel super-comfortable on the straightaways,” Lehman said. “Usually, I can get down (them) in six strokes for the first half of the race, at least, and today I was really struggling with six and throwing in eight in some of the early laps.
“I definitely had to fight a little more early in the race than I would have liked to.”
It’s not yet time for the Americans to panic, because the skaters with the best chances to medal — Heather Bergsma, Brittany Bowe and Joey Mantia — have yet to race. Bergsma and Bowe skate Monday in the women’s 1,500. If their times are slower than expected, concern will grow.
The U.S. long-track team failed to win a medal in Sochi four years ago, its first shutout in 30 years. When asked if Team USA had set a medal target for Pyeongchang, sprinter Mitch Whitmore of Waukesha, Wis., said, “More than zero.”
It’s a bit worrisome that Schoutens and Lehman fell short of their target times. But in fairness to Lehman, he was a late addition to the 5k and is focused more on helping Team USA try to reach the podium in the team pursuit.
“If one of my races had to be bad — ideally, neither of them would be bad — but if one of them had to be bad, definitely the 5k is OK,” he said. “Then I can go into the team pursuit a little more clear-headed.”
Lehman said the ice at the Gangneung Oval was similar to what he trained on in Milwaukee.
“All my lap times throughout the week have been very similar to what I was doing in Milwaukee,” Lehman said. “Going into the race, the ice was good, the preparation was good. It’s just on me to perform well and skate a little better than I skated.”