U.S. takes team pursuit gold, Jordan Stolz silver, Cooper McLeod bronze at speed skating worlds
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.
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.
SPEED SKATING WORLDS: Full Results | Broadcast Schedule
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.
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 were in first and second place going into the last pair.
De Boo clocked 34.24 seconds, edging Stolz by .14 and McLeod, who earned his first individual world medal, by .28.
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.
Stolz next races the 1000m on Saturday and the 1500m on Sunday. He has been more dominant in those races this season — 10 wins in 11 starts — than in the 500m.
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.
Nick Zaccardi,
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