Oak Park and River Forest High School alum Emery Lehman, a three-time U.S. Olympian in speed skating, is a finalist in this year’s voting for the American Amateur Union James Sullivan Award, presented to the country’s best amateur athlete.
Lehman, a 2014 graduate, won a bronze medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China in the team pursuit event, along with teammates Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson, and Joey Mantia.
As Lehman prepares to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, he continues to have success. He, along with Cepuran and Dawson, set a new world record in the team pursuit at a World Cup speedskating event in Salt Lake City, UT, clocking in at a time of 3:33.36. That was two seconds better than runner-up Norway, which had taken the previous world record from the Americans earlier this year.
Lehman is one of six finalists for the Sullivan Award. The others are University of Iowa women’s basketball player Caitlin Clark; U.S. Paralympic swimmer Noah Jaffe; University of Michigan gymnast Frederick Richard; University of Texas women’s volleyball player Madisen Skinner; and U.S. freestyle wrestler David Taylor.
Voting is taking place online at aausullivan.org through March 19. You can vote once every day until 10:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time on the 19th.
The winner will be announced at a black-tie dinner, April 23, at the New York Athletic Club.