Men’s Team Pursuit Captures World Title As U.S. Wins Six Total Medals in Hamar

Olympic Bronze medalists Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran struck for Gold medals in the Men’s Team Pursuit, and Jordan Stolz won three medals at the ISU World Speed Skating Championships this past weekend in Hamar, Norway.

Adding to the total haul of six U.S. medals were Cooper McLeod, who reached his first individual World Championships podium with a Bronze medal in the Men’s 500m, and Austin Kleba and Zach Stoppelmoor, who combined with McLeod to capture a Bronze medal in the Men’s Team Sprint.

Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran had already won the World Cup Title in the Team Pursuit. They capped off the season with a World Championship Title Friday, defeating Italy, the defending champ, by nearly two seconds.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Lehman, who said he plans to retire following the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. “This was our last World Championships doing the Team Pursuit together, so we really wanted to out on a strong note.”

Dawson was the lead skater on a team that won the event in 3:39.24. The Team Pursuit team medaled at all three races during the 2024-25 World Cup season.

“I’m a long-distance guy, 5000m and 10,000m,” Dawson said. “I’m not the fastest starter in the world, but I have a pretty big engine as far as endurance goes. Once I get going, I can maintain the lap times, and they’re so comfortable behind me.”

Stolz, who had been the two-time defending World Champion at 500m, 1000m and 1500m, won Silver medals in the 500m and 1500m and the Bronze medal in the 1000m. He was the World Cup Champion at all three distances but has been recovering from pneumonia and strep throat in recent weeks.

“I’m still happy with the medals,” Stolz said. “Right now, I’m in my worst shape, and I can still get close to winning. When I’m in my best shape, we’ll see. Hopefully I can get that big lead back again.”

In the Men’s 500m on Friday, Stolz and McLeod skated in the same pair and finished second and third behind Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands. De Boo won in a Track Record time of 34.24 seconds, just .14 seconds ahead of Stolz and .28 seconds ahead of McLeod.

“It’s nice to be able to be paired up with Jordan,” McLeod said. “We’ve been paired for years, since we were juniors.”

McLeod said his goal was to get out fast, which he did.

“Today I had my fastest opener (9.65 seconds),” he said. “I carried that into a good first corner, and after that it was just getting to see the reigning World Champion in front of you. That’s pretty motivating. It was fun to get chasing down the back stretch.”

On Saturday, Stolz and McLeod finished third and fourth, respectively, behind Dutch skaters Joep Wennemars and de Boo in the 1000m. Stolz crossed the line in 1:08.26, just .21 seconds behind Wennemars. McLeod finished in 1:08.40.

Then, on Sunday, Stolz finished the 1500m in 1:44.71, or just .07 seconds behind Peder Kongshaug of Norway, to win another Silver medal.

“I didn’t know if I would be able to medal when I crossed the line,” Stolz said. “I looked up at the board. It wasn’t a Gold. That, of course, was annoying, but for how I felt going into the race, I’m happy with it.”

The U.S. men also won the World Cup Title in the Team Sprint. On the final day in Hamar, Kleba, McLeod and Stoppelmoor added a World Championships Bronze medal in the event. They finished third behind China and the Netherlands with a time of 1:19.23, completing a season that saw them medal in all four World Cup races. This was the first World Cup medal for all three skaters.

Erin Jackson, the reigning Olympic Champion in the Women’s 500m, came within .22 seconds of the podium, finishing fifth with a time of 37.95 seconds. Femke Kok of the Netherlands won the race in 37.50 seconds. Jackson also finished 11th in the 1000m.

Also grabbing fifth-place finishes were two-time Olympian Mia Manganello in the Women’s Mass Start and Cepuran in the Men’s Mass Start.

Manganello teamed up with Brittany Bowe and Greta Myers for a fifth-place finish in the Women’s Team Pursuit.

Dawson had a pair of top 10 individual finishes: He was eighth in the Men’s 10,000m and 10th in the 5000m. Stoppelmoor had 18th-place finishes in the 500m and 1000m.

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USSpeedskating.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.