Casey Dawson’s speedskating ‘Pain Train’ chugging towards the Olympics

Casy Dawson stood in the center of his two Team Pursuit partners from U.S. Speedskating, which is based in Utah, in the #1 spot of the podium at the World Cup in Norway. Photo: courtesy of U.S. Speedskating

HAMAR, Norway — In Hamar, Norway, the neighboring city to Olympic City Lillehammer, on Sunday, Casey Dawson of Park City stood atop the podium with his two U.S. speedskating teammates Emery Lehman and Ethan Cuperan after winning the World Cup Team Pursuit race. 

Jordan Stolz of Team USA won five races and broke track records in three of them.

Dawson’s proud parents, Tami and Michael, who live in Park City, shared the news on social media. It had also been posted by the International Skating Union (ISU). 

The three have their “pain train on track” the ISU wrote about prolific past performances of this team. The squad secured its sixth straight Men’s Team Pursuit race to capture a fifth consecutive World Cup championship in the event.

Dawson, Lehman, and Cepuran finished off a perfect season in the Team Pursuit by winning their race by more than two seconds over runner-up Italy. Their time of 3:40.282 missed a track record by just 0.04 seconds.

Dawson added an eighth-place finish in the Men’s 5000m, and McLeod had a pair of top 10 finishes in the 500m and 1000m along with an 11th-place finish in the second 500m race. Cepuran finished 11th in the Mass Start.

Despite their big margin and their impressive streak of World Cup trophy wins, the USA Team Pursuit men never take anything for granted, especially since they ended up with bronze after going into the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games as favorites.

Dawson, who said he was a bit fatigued at the Hamar World Cup, explained the need to avoid complacency.

“Everyone’s so competitive, anyone can come out of the woodwork at the Games, and now we’re just trying to be consistent, stay on top,” he said to the ISU/U.S. Speedskating reporters who were present, including Paul D. Bowker. “It’s important not to be content with times like this, because it’s going to be a lot faster at the Games. We know what to work on, and we know what to do the coming months to stay on top.”

With this serving as one of four qualifiers for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, and the maximum amount of quota places per country being nine skaters per gender, chances are looking strong for Dawson to again represent the United States and Park City at the Games, just like his medal-winning appearance in 2022.