A new technique is revolutionizing the team event.
The United States team introduced pushing in competition in 2020 at the world championships in Salt Lake City. With Ethan Cepuran skating all eight laps in front of Emery Lehman and Ian Quinn, the group of unheralded Americans finished fifth, almost four seconds behind the victorious Dutch.
Domer said that the fifth-place finish “maximized the potential” of those skaters. For the Americans, finishing within four seconds of the mighty Dutch was a victory in itself.
The full potential of the strategy became clear in December 2021, again in Salt Lake City, when Casey Dawson, skating last in line, pushed Lehman, who pushed lead skater Joey Mantia. The team set a world record time in a World Cup event.
Mantia, who isn’t a long-distance skater and was so exhausted after the race that he lay splayed out on the ground for several seconds, said he thought his job in the front was actually the easiest. “I just get up front and lead the way, and these guys are pushing me so hard that I can basically just move my feet and they keep it, keep the rhythm and keep the speeds up,” he said.
Perhaps the reason the team works is because Lehman and Dawson also think their jobs are the easiest. “Every time I’m back there and I’m getting tired, I’m like, ‘OK, well, how tiring would it be to lead the whole thing?’” Lehman said.
The United States isn’t the first country to try pushing; the Canadians did it in 2010 en route to winning a gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics. What’s new is how frequently and how hard they push, combined with never relieving the front skater.