Glen Ellyn's 'Happy Speed Skater' Cepuran Captures Beijing Bronze

GLEN ELLYN, IL — There are times when Carl Cepuran admittedly has difficulty separating his son Ethan competing on an Olympic stage from the times when Ethan was pushing a 5-gallon bucket around the Center Ice facility in Glen Ellyn.

Emotions often become intertwined for the father of three sons, the youngest of whom will go for a gold medal the early-morning hours of Tuesday with the U.S. Olympic men’s speedskating team. But ask Carl Cepuran to put those feelings into words, and it becomes increasingly difficult for the former competitive skater and coach at the local club where his three boys grew up as years of hard work and community support all blend together.

At 21, Ethan Cepuran is a first-time Olympian on a squad that was seeded second behind Finland heading into what amounts to the speed skating Final Four at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. The Americans finished just four one-hundredths of a second behind defending Olympic champion Norway on Sunday but lost by nearly one-half second to Russia in the team pursuit semifinals early Tuesday morning.

Russia set a new Olympic record in the race and came from behind to defeat the Americans, who were considered the favorite after establishing a world record in the event. The United States topped the Netherlands by more than 3 seconds later Tuesday morning to capture the bronze medal.

Still, Cepuran's squad could not have been more proud to watch the local Olympian who will remain in China through the end of the games before heading to Norway early in March for yet another competition.

“It’s just really indescribable,” Carl Cepuran told Patch on Monday. “It’s more just a feeling inside really of incredible joy, gratitude and, I have to be honest, there’s a little bit of tension and nerves, too. But overall, it’s just this bursting of emotion welling up inside.”

The fact that Ethan Cepuran, a 2018 Glenbard West graduate, is on the verge of being an Olympic medal winner is tough for his father to fathom at times. After his older brothers, Eric and Gordon, took to the ice with the Glen Ellyn Speed Skating Club years before Ethan made his debut, the youngest of the skating Cepurans more or less willed his way to be included after being initially dropped off at a babysitter’s when the rest of the family would go off to practice.

After a couple of weeks of tantrums, Ethan was brought along to Center Ice of DuPage and was sat on one of the hockey team benches while the rest of his family skated. Within two weeks, Ethan, who had only been walking for six months at the time, was given a 5-gallon bucket to sit on while someone else pushed him around the ice.

Within two weeks of that, Ethan would ask his parents for skates of his own. Carl fitted his boy with skates that fit over his shoes, and the smile never lost Ethan's face.

“He was happy,” Carl Cepuran said Monday. “He just seemed to like it and he just never quit.”

Ethan soon was tagging along to his brothers’ skating competitions and soaked up the environment of being part of the sport on a competitive basis. His omnipresent smile never disappeared, earning him the nickname, “The Happy Speed Skater” from family friends. Despite the sport’s intensity, Ethan never lost his passion for being on the ice regardless of all of the tension and drama that go along with being a competitor.

Ethan eventually made his way to the Glen Ellyn Speed Skating Club, which is one of the country’s oldest. On Sunday, when Cepuran fell just short of knocking off the Finns on Sunday in the Olympic quarterfinal rounds, much of the community came out to cheer the village’s native son on despite the competition starting at 6:30 a.m. local time.

As his father looked around the room, the emotions of everything that had brought his youngest son to this point all came together. As he watched Ethan compete, Carl Cepuran thought back to all of the early-morning training sessions and the memories that were made with his son’s team members from the home club.

“It’s not like, ‘Oh, now we’re at the Olympics,’” Carl Cepuran said. “It’s kind of a continuum of that kid that was pushing that bucket around. You can’t disconnect it from that.”

While Tuesday’s meaningful races will take place while much of the greater Chicago area is sleeping before television coverage airs later in the day, Ethan’s family will watch it in real time. They have maintained contact with Ethan by text message, passing along well-wishes and reminders of home as a way to not add more pressure to what is already a tense time for the local Olympian.

On Monday, the coach and former skater in Carl Cepuran couldn't help but think about strategies and what he might tell his son if he could before he returns to the ice for the biggest races of his career thus far. But then he realized there is nothing he can do from a distance and will instead allow what will happen to take care of itself.

And while his family is excited to see where Ethan Cepuran’s Beijing Olympic journey wound up, the father in Carl Cepuran couldn't help but think back to where it started. And that's when all of the emotions began welling up all over again.

“We’re happy for Ethan, but it gets really emotional thinking all of his effort and sacrifice," Carl told Patch, "but you also can't not think about all of the people who have influenced his life over the years because you don’t get there alone.”