By HOWARD FENDRICH
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Fun and goofy off-ice bonding is no guarantee of Olympic success, of course.
Still, the U.S. Speedskating team competing at the Milan Cortina Winter Games starting Saturday does see value in the odd-as-can-be plastic foot attached to a phone case and the schoolkid’s pink, heart-festooned backpack that Casey Dawson is schlepping around town as punishment for losing at fantasy football.
“It keeps me humble. It keeps me grounded. It puts a smile on my face every time I see it. It’s kind of ridiculous, but it’s fun. It keeps everything fun and light-hearted,” said Dawson, a 25-year-old from Park City, Utah, whose first event at this Winter Games comes Sunday in the men’s 5,000 meters.
“Unfortunately, the timing is the Games,” he said. “So I have to carry it around for the biggest stage in the world.”
Rest assured, the TV cameras capturing every athlete’s every move at the Speed Skating Stadium, a temporary structure built for these races, will zoom in on Dawson’s accessories at some point. Probably going to come up in interviews, too.
So how did he “earn” this honor?
By bringing up the rear during the NFL’s 2024-25 season in a 10-team league based on football players’ individual statistics, he was stuck with the loser’s gear for speedskating’s 2025-26 season.
“People remember the losers,” explained Ethan Cepuran, a 25-year-old from Glen Ellyn, Illinois, who is slated for two long track events in Milan, “a lot more than the winners.”
All of the fantasy squads in the competition are managed by speedskaters, most of whom, including Brittany Bowe, Mia Manganello, Sarah Warren and Zach Stoppelmoor, qualified for the Feb. 6-22 Olympics in Italy.
“It’s a good distraction (from) the stress of competing,” Cepuran said. “We’re not just talking about speedskating all the time on the road or at practice.”
The league — organized by skater Jon Tobon, this season’s champion — began five years ago with just a bit of money at stake.
But then …
“At the end of the season, we were just like: ‘We’ve got to have a punishment,’” explained Cepuran, who will enter the mass start on Feb. 21 and join Dawson and Emery Lehman, a 29-year-old from Oak Park, Illinois, in the team pursuit on Feb. 15 and 17. The United States holds the world record in team pursuit and took home bronze from the 2022 Beijing Olympics in that event.
With the goal of having more than cash at stake, someone — nobody seems to remember who — came up with the idea of the backpack, which has a small plush heart attached. Dawson, who clearly needs to get some pointers on how to succeed at fantasy football, and Lehman were in last place the first two seasons.
“Emery wore it so well that nobody even noticed. Nobody even really cared,” Cepuran said. “We were like: ‘You’ve got to make people care about what’s going on.’ We decided to add a phone case.”
The winner picks two silly-looking phone cases, and the other folks involved vote on which one is used.
“It’s very democratic,” Cepuran said. “Kind of.”
Lehman again wound up last in the most recent NFL season, which wraps up Sunday with the Super Bowl.
He’ll be retiring after these Olympics, his fourth, and heading into the real world: Lehman has been studying financial planning in hopes of a job in that sector and plans to work with skaters at a Chicago rink he grew up going to.
“We’re always trying to one-up ourselves,” Dawson said. “Maybe it’ll be a roller suitcase next season.”
Lehman offered another suggestion.
“I think my punishment is I’ve got to come back … to skate a 1,500,” Lehman said. “That’s worse than carrying the pink backpack. I’d rather carry the pink backpack.”
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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