Glen Ellyn speed skater Ethan Cepuran feels like he has unfinished business
Late Thursday afternoon Ethan Cepuran and his fellow United States Olympic speed skaters pulled into Milan, Italy, after a seven-hour bus ride from Inzell, Germany, where Team USA had participated in a World Cup event.
“Just a tuneup,” said Cepuran, of Glen Ellyn.
Likewise, while he thought the bronze medal in team pursuit, won by Cepuran, Casey Dawson, Joey Mantia and Oak Park’s Emery Lehman four years ago in Beijing, was “pretty cool,” he hoped it was a tuneup for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
“Our goal is to win, and we were definitely disappointed that we didn’t follow through with that,” said Cepuran, 25. He also placed 17th in the 5000-meter race at Beijing in 2022.
“But still, when I first joined the national team, the goal was just win a medal, or even just make it to the Olympics and change the game. We did those things, and I accomplished a life-long dream there, and this time around, we want a little bit more.”
Men’s team pursuit, eight laps spanning 3,200 meters, starts with Feb. 15 preliminaries leading to Feb. 17 semifinals and finals.
Cepuran also qualified in the 16-lap, 6,400-meter men’s mass start event scheduled for Feb. 21 at Milano Speed Skating Stadium. He’s on Team USA’s reserve list for the 5000.
A 6-foot-2 skater who with the help of friendly teachers and iPads he used nationwide during training and competition, Cepuran graduated from Glenbard West High School in 2018, the same year he was named to the U.S. National Team.
He is a world-record holder in team pursuit. Breaking their own 2024 record, on Nov. 16, reigning world champions Cepuran, Dawson and Lehman recorded a time of 3 minutes, 32.49 seconds in a Salt Lake City World Cup event, beating defending Olympic gold medalist Norway in the process.
However the results at Milano Cortina turn out, Cepuran expects a return to normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic weighed heavily on the Beijing Games.
Yes, he was thrilled with the “surreal” Opening Ceremonies, following gold medal speed skater and flag bearer Brittany Bowe into the Bird’s Nest, seeing the glowing Olympic rings. But then...
“Every day you’re getting something shoved into the back of your throat to test if you have COVID or not,” Cepuran said.
“You would always be crossing your fingers, leaving every day from the daily test. It’s kind of nice not to have to worry about that this time, although being healthy is always a big factor around traveling and competing.”
No foreign spectators were allowed to attend, so Cepuran’s parents and brothers, mentors all, could not see him race.
“We've been looking forward to this, hoping he'd get another return trip to the Olympics,” said his father, Carl Cepuran.
This time, parents Carl and Marilyn Cepuran, brothers Eric and Gordon, and their wives, and Ethan’s girlfriend, Anna, will come to watch their favorite skater.
Carl Cepuran began this whole journey as a boy on Chicago’s South Side. The son of a Blackhawks fan, he responded to an ad for a speed skating class he thought was for hockey.
Years later, after settling in Glen Ellyn, that background led the Cepuran kids to join the Glen Ellyn Speedskating Club. They skated on frozen Lake Ellyn, at Center Ice in Glen Ellyn and short-track rinks throughout the suburbs — on up to the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, where Ethan eventually would train four days a week on the longer, 400-meter oval.
“Having that short-track background growing up really helped Ethan develop that hard-nosed, competitive edge and also the strategy and tactics for racing in a large group without a whole lane to yourself,” Carl Cepuran said.
Aided by Eric and Gordon Cepuran, respectively 14 and 8 years older than their kid brother, Ethan Cepuran started skating at around 2 years old.
“They sat me on the hockey bench for a little bit, then they sat me on a Home Depot 5-gallon painter’s bucket,” Ethan Cepuran said. “Eventually, I started wanting to actually stand on the ice, and they put skates on me at that point, and I started pushing the bucket around.”
His sights are set on Olympic gold, but Cepuran hasn’t forgotten his roots.
“If Lake Ellyn is frozen, go experience it. There’s nothing like skating outdoors,” he said.
“A lot of my early memories skating as a kid were out there racing — the Illinois State Championship at one point — or going out there with my brothers, playing a little pond hockey. It’s skating at its best.”