After four years of thinking about Olympic gold in team pursuit speed skating, it was finally time for Marquette alumni Emery Lehman and Team USA — the event favorites — to show how hard they had been working.

But in its qualifying race against Italy, the red, white and blue fell apart in the last three laps.

Out of the gates, it looked as if Team USA and Lehman were going to have no problem against the home team. They began strong.

After two laps, USA was a little over eight tenths of a second in front of Italy and 1.7 seconds in front of Germany: the fastest team in qualifiers up until that point.

“And in a way, (Team USA) really is a true American underdog story,” NBC commentator Bill Spaulding said during the event. “As three individuals were not individual medal favorites, but together, they are better than any team of all-stars.”

Team USA kept growing the lead and on the completion of the very next lap, they led by almost a second. They maintained this margin for two laps until Italy started creeping back. On the penultimate go-around, Italy was only four hundredths behind.

When the home team crossed the line, they finished almost a second ahead of Team USA.

Around two seconds were lost by Lehman and his teammates in three laps.

“It wasn’t their cleanest race, it wasn’t their prettiest, but in prime position to still fight for a medal,” Spaulding said.

Lehman and Team USA will compete again on Tuesday in the semifinals against China. The winner of that one race will compete later on in the day in the gold medal match against the winner of the Netherlands and Italy. The loser will be relegated to the bronze medal race.

This recap was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.