MILWAUKEE — We’re officially one week out from the start of our Winter Olympics coverage and as the race to Beijing heats up, one local athlete is poised to be at the cutting edge of this year’s games.
After finishing second to last in the 5000-meter race at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, speedskater Emery Lehman took a step back. He took some time off in 2018 and 2019 to finish his civil engineering degree at Marquette, before storming back in this year’s trials and taking third place.
Before heading to Beijing, he shared his thoughts on what his third time in the Olympics means to him and how excited he is to represent his country.
“It happens every four years. So, you know, four years out for something, it's tough to imagine, you know, ‘Wow, I have to replicate my best performance ever that I just put four years of work in again in four years.’ And then, you know, here we are four years later and I was able to do that. And it is something special and it's still you know, something I'm trying to wrap my head around, and I'm sure it won't really hit me until I'm in China,” said Lehman.
Emery’s journey for the gold comes early in Beijing, with the men’s 5000-meter race happening on Sunday, Feb. 6. If you would like to watch it live, it is set for 4:30 p.m. Beijing time (2:30 a.m. CST) right here on TMJ4.
