Following the 2018 Olympics, the United States developed a new team pursuit strategy that catapulted the country's program to the top of both the men's and women's fields and inspired their opponents to alter their own approaches to the event.

The country has never won a team pursuit race, men's or women's, on the Olympic level. That could change this year.

The United States boasts two trios armed with loads of Olympic experience and a proven ability to climb the podium: the women skated to bronze in 2018, and four years later, the men did the same in Beijing. With three of the skaters planning to retire at the end of this season — Brittany Bowe and Mia Manganello on the women's team and Emery Lehman on the men's — there's extra motivation to level up their prizes in Milan.

They'll take Olympic ice for the final time together Feb. 17. The day begins with the men's semifinals, followed by the women's semifinals, men's finals, and women's finals.

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Casey Dawson and Ethan Cepuran join Lehman in the nearly-insurmountable U.S. men's trio.

The American strategy uses one leader throughout the entire skate (rather than having the leader drop to the back every lap or two) while relying on pushes from the two following skaters to maintain the leader’s momentum. The men debuted the technique at the 2020 World Championships, where they finished 5th.

Then came the 2021-22 season. After breaking the Netherlands' world record at a World Cup event at their home rink in Salt Lake City, the U.S. squad — which then also included Joey Mantia, who retired in 2023 — skated to the United States’ first-ever overall World Cup title in the distance. They’ve earned the crown every year since, breaking the world record twice more in 2024 and 2025 and securing the country’s first world championship gold in the event in 14 years.

On this year's World Cup circuit, Dawson, Lehman, and Cepuran won each of their three races by 2.3 seconds or more. They entered the Olympics riding a six-race undefeated streak.

The three skaters led the way nearly all through Sunday's semifinal, posting the fastest splits through the middle six-and-a-half laps (of eight total). A slight dip in speed toward the end gave Italy, with whom they were paired, the edge, and they finished 2nd.

The Italian squad of Davide Ghiotto, Andrew Giovannini, and Michele Malfatti — all of whom raced Sunday — won the world title in 2024.

China and the Netherlands filled out the final two available semifinals spots. The Netherlands claimed bronze in the last two of three total team pursuit races contested on the World Cup level this season, while China placed 3rd in the other.

Olympic veterans Bowe and Manganello, who aided in the country's bronze-medal effort in 2018, have lifted the U.S. women into the top 5 globally in each of the last four World Cup seasons. With two medals in three races this year, they secured their second straight top-3 finish.

Typically, Bowe leads the crew, Manganello rides in the middle, and Greta Myers and Giorgia Birkeland split time as the anchor. 

In Saturday's quarterfinal, Bowe, Manganello, and Birkeland consistently posted the fourth- or fifth-fastest lap splits the whole way through the race, ending in 4th to clinch the last qualifying spot. Their speed began to slip in the final corners, but their synchronicity — a skill the United States has perfect in both its men's and women's trios over the last five years — kept them in the race. Their final time of 2 minutes, 58.32 seconds, was 3.29 seconds behind leader Canada. 

As a unit, they broke the national record twice this season.

The three teams rounding out the semifinals are the three medalists from Beijing: Canada (gold), Japan (silver), and the Netherlands (bronze).

Canada enters these Games with the world's top-ranked trio. Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann, and Valarie Maltais set a new Olympic record in Beijing and made the podium in all three World Cup races this season (1 gold, 2 silvers).

Powered by middle-distance icon Miho Takagi, world record-holder Japan also skated to three top-three finishes this season (1 gold, 2 bronze).

The Netherlands' Joy Beune, Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong, and Marijke Groenewoud won the 2025 world title in the event.