Utah’s Casey Dawson earns Olympics spot for the men’s 5,000 meters at US speedskating trials

By Canadian Press on January 2, 2026.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Casey Dawson secured a spot in the men’s 5,000 meters in long track speedskating at the Milan Cortina Winter Games by winning that event at the U.S. Olympic trials in 6 minutes, 12.857 seconds on Friday night.

Ethan Cepuran was about 6 1/2 seconds back, finishing next in 6:19.335.

The last American man to medal in the 5,000 at an Olympics was Chad Hedrick at the 2006 Turin Games.

Dawson, a 25-year-old from Park City, Utah, already had secured the lone U.S. place for Milan in the men’s 10,000 — an distance not being contested at these trials — and also will be part of the trio for men’s team pursuit at the Olympics.

Dawson, Cepuran and Emery Lehman took the bronze in that event at the Beijing Games four years ago, set the world record in 2024 and claimed gold in the team pursuit at the world championships in March.

In the other race Friday, the women’s 3,000, Greta Myers won in 4:06.799. As of now, the United States does not have a berth in Milan for that distance, but one of its athletes could end up in the field if another country relinquishes an opening.

The U.S. Olympic roster for long track won’t become official until the four-day trials at the Pettit National Ice Center wrap up on Monday. One element that could come into play is that the Americans are allowed to bring a maximum of eight men and six women to these Winter Games.

The biggest star of the team — and the sport — is scheduled to make his trials debut Saturday in the men’s 1,000 meters: Jordan Stolz. The 21-year-old from Kewaskum, a town about 40 miles north of Milwaukee, is not just competing at home this week; he’s racing at the same rink where he first began taking lessons as a kid.

He made his Olympic debut at age 17 in Beijing four years ago, finishing 13th in the 500 and 14th in the 1,000.

At both the 2023 and 2024 world championships, Stolz earned titles in each of the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters.

He’s already pre-qualified for the Olympics based on performances at those three distances. All he really needs to do to lock down berths on the squad for the Feb. 6-22 Milan Cortina Games is show up at the starting line this week.

The 500 and 1,500 are slated for Sunday, and the mass start is Monday.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press

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