HAMAR, Norway — The U.S. won a medal of every color in men’s events, including team pursuit gold, at the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships on Friday.
Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran combined to win the U.S.’ first title in the men’s team pursuit since 2011. They beat silver medalist Italy by a sizable 1.93 seconds in the eight-lap event.
Jordan Stolz and Cooper McLeod added silver and bronze medals in the 500m won by Dutchman Jenning de Boo. It’s the first time two American men made the same individual world podium since Shani Davis and Trevor Marsicano in 2009 in the 1000m and 1500m.
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De Boo became the first skater to beat Stolz in a World Single Distances Championships race after Stolz swept the 500m, 1000m and 1500m at his first two worlds in 2023 and 2024.
Femke Kok and Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands went one-two in the women’s 500m, with Kok earning her third consecutive world title in the event.
Olympic gold medalist Erin Jackson was fifth, 23 hundredths behind bronze medalist Kim Min-Sun of South Korea.
Going back to the men’s team pursuit, Dawson, Lehman and Cepuran added a world title to their Olympic bronze medals from 2022 and world record from 2024.
“This was our last World Championships doing the team pursuit together,” said the 28-year-old, three-time Olympian Lehman, who plans to retire after the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. “So we really wanted to go out on a strong note.”
The U.S. has won silver and bronze at the Olympics in team pursuits, but never Olympic gold. The event made its Olympic debut in 2006.
In the men’s 500m on Friday, de Boo broke a 17-year-old track record at the Viking Ship to overtake Stolz and McLeod, who went into first and second place skating together in the penultimate pair.
De Boo clocked 34.24 seconds going last, edging Stolz by .14 and McLeod, who earned his first individual world medal, by .28.
“I thought technically it was all right,” Stolz said of his skate. “The opener (first 100 meters) wasn’t as fast as I had hoped for. Not what I was looking for. I was looking for more of a nine five (9.5 seconds for the first 100m), and I had a nine six (9.62). Technically I thought it was good, but just didn’t have it in the legs.”
Stolz, a 20-year-old from Wisconsin, in 2023 became the first man to win three individual events at one worlds and the youngest skater to win an individual world title.
He repeated the 500m, 1000m and 1500m triple in 2024, plus won a men’s record 18 consecutive World Cup races from Feb. 2, 2024, through Feb. 1, 2025.
De Boo emerged this season as Stolz’s closest challenger, then beat Stolz for the first time on the senior level in Stolz’s most recent World Cup 500m on Feb. 28.
Stolz contracted pneumonia and strep throat in early February, then withdrew from his last World Cup races before worlds from March 1-2 due to tiredness from overtraining in returning from the illnesses. His coach, Bob Corby, deemed Stolz’s readiness at 98% on Tuesday.
“Everything that’s happened in the last month has probably played into it,” Stolz said of Friday’s skate. “I felt like I got all of my power into the ice. It’s just going to take a little bit more time to build it back. I wasn’t ready for this.”
McLeod, a 23-year-old from Washington, made his first senior international 500m podium. He finished third at the 2022 Olympic Trials in the 500m when the U.S. had two Olympic spots in the event.
Since, he has climbed the world rankings — 25th in the 2022-23 World Cup season, 16th last year and sixth this season. McLeod made his first two individual World Cup podiums this season, both in the 1000m, where he’s ranked third in the world behind Stolz and de Boo.
“The goal of the weekend for me was to walk away with a medal (individually),” said McLeod, who earned bronze in Thursday’s team sprint. “I was thinking 1000m because that’s where I’ve been strong this year.”
Stolz and McLeod next race the 1000m on Saturday, with Stolz also skating the 1500m on Sunday. Stolz has been more dominant in those races this season — 10 wins in 11 starts — than in the 500m.
De Boo is ranked second in the world in the 1000m. The world’s second- and third-ranked 1500m skaters are both Norwegian and will be racing on home ice.
Worlds continue Saturday with the women’s and men’s 1000m, the women’s 5000m and the men’s mass start, starting at 9 a.m. ET, live on Peacock. CNBC airs highlights at 1 p.m.
