MILAN — While such distinctions aren’t officially documented, it’s safe to say that American speedskater Emery Lehman is now one of the most decorated Jewish Winter Olympians in history — and may even top the list.

“Right on, let’s go,” the 29-year-old exclaimed with a big, wide smile when the accolade was mentioned, still catching his breath at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, where moments before, his two-decade speedskating career had come to an end.

“Well, probably the most decorated Jewish speedskater, at least,” chuckled the now two-time medalist, his skates still in hand after finishing 25th in his final Olympic event, the 1,500-meter individual race.

Two days earlier, Lehman won silver in the three-man team pursuit competition, to go with a team pursuit bronze he picked up in Beijing in 2022. He also competed for Team USA at the 2014 and 2018 Games.

Reflecting on his two decades of dedication to the sport, the Chicago native explained how much being a world-class Jewish athlete means to him — not only because it’s important to him to represent Jews everywhere, but because his pursuit of Olympic glory has come with significant sacrifices to his own Judaism.

Lehman described how, after growing up going to Hebrew school and attending synagogue twice a week — and with a mother who came from a religious upbringing in Mill Basin, New York — there was only one school he could attend to obtain a high-quality education while being part of America’s national speedskating squad.

With Team USA based in Milwaukee, he needed to go to Marquette University.

“Of all places, I went to a Jesuit college. I think I knew two other Jews at the entire university. They were all kids that went to private Catholic schools,” Lehman said.

He added that going to theology class is something he will never forget.

“We’d have these 100-question multiple choice tests, and these kids in class were just rattling off the answers. And I was like, ‘I have no idea. I’m in way over my head here.’ I went to a Hebrew school, having never done any of that. It was definitely something that stood out, and ever since then, I’ve just been really happy to represent [Jewish people].”

That feeling strengthened in 2018, when Lehman went on a Birthright trip to Israel, along with his best friend, Stevie Samuels, author of the Jewish children’s book “You’ve Got Some Schmutz.”

“I think the biggest thing [from that trip] was this big sense of pride and community that really sat with me. It’s such a small and beautiful place,” Lehman said.

Because of the demands of his skating career, he has been unable to get back to Israel, but now that he has retired, it is on his to-do list. He’s keen to travel there with his mom, Marcia.

“My mom has worked for Hebrew University; she’s done a lot of fundraising and worked with some pretty phenomenal Israeli people. A lot of people [there] love my mom,” Lehman said.

“I don’t think I would be a two-time Olympic medalist, a four-time Olympian, without my mom being a Jewish woman from New York,” he added. “She dragged me to my first practice, kicking and screaming, and she made me do it. And she made me stick with it. And here we are.”

In fact, Emery’s immediate family — which also includes father David and brother Graham, who is 18 months older — always made it a priority to have a sports-oriented lifestyle. Graham played tennis collegiately at Lehigh University and is now coaching the sport at Vassar College. Emery said the two were hyper-competitive, always getting into fights whenever engaged in any sporting activity. So, it was a good thing, he said, that they chose different athletic paths: hockey, lacrosse, and eventually speedskating for Emery, and soccer, baseball, and finally tennis for Graham.

Emery said his dad was deeply involved too, coaching their teams in baseball and hockey, and taking a disciplinarian’s no-nonsense approach to their personal and athletic development, which had a major positive impact.

Emery was thrilled to share his final Olympic experience with his mom, dad and brother in Milan — as well as many others in his tightly-knit extended family.

His one mild disappointment with these Games is that his silver medal is not gold, as the US pursuit team of Lehman, Casey Dawson and Ethan Cepuran entered the competition as favorites to win after capturing the world championship last year and dominating this season’s World Cup circuit. Riding a vociferous home crowd, Italy upset the Americans.

“A lot of people have been saying that we kind of came short of the gold, but I think at the same time, you know, second in the world on an off day is, I think, pretty impressive,” he said. “That just goes to show what a strong team we are and the things we’ve done over the last four years.”

Lehman’s focus will now shift to a regular working life as he moves back to Chicago. He earned a degree in civil engineering from Marquette and followed that with a master’s in structural engineering from Johns Hopkins University. After dedicating his life to his sport, it’s going to be a challenging transition.

“I hope I can find something to stress out about and love and be passionate about as much as this,” he said. “I think that’s gonna be really hard, but I think finding a good career, I think that I’ll find a lot of fulfilment in doing that. And there’s gonna be people that I’m passionate about being close to — all those friends and family I have missed because of the sacrifices I have made.”

He also said it’s important to him that he give back to his sport by coaching at the same local club where he learned to skate many years ago. And, he said, if anyone in Israel is ever interested, he’d be thrilled to do clinics there when he does get around to visiting again.

“Hey, man, if they need a coach to come out there and teach some speedskating, I’m all in,” Lehman said.

If so, we have a request. 

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