Bad rap for Speedskater Shani Davis???

They approached him 2 days prior to join a team pursuit and couldn't understand that he wanted to focus and harness all his energy on his own individual event. Guess Chad Hedrick thought it was all about him breaking Eric Heiden's record and nothing else mattered. Shani claims to have been treated shabbily by team USA and was unfazed when they wanted to use him for their convenience to make Chad's dream come true. I applaud him for standing his ground. Now they want to put their loss on his shoulders when he was never welcomed in the first place it appears.

I disagree with them saying he wasn't a team player, and heard some Americans were pulling for other foreigners to beat Shani. From reading another article on the link below I can somehow believe it. It's reminiscent of how the Williams' sisters were treated when white Americans routed for their European opponents. Something's just not right with this picture. I've seen comments on two boards saying Bryant Gumbel spoke out about this situation and the media started flashing photos of Bryant and his white wife as if to say he has no right to criticize them because of who he's married to.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/13927330.htm


SHANI DAVIS MAKES HISTORY AT WINTER OLYMPICS: First black athlete to win individual gold ruffles feathers en route to victory.
February 21, 2006

So what’s the real story behind the first African American Olympic speedskating gold medalist Shani Davis, his devoted mother and their collective cold shoulder toward U.S. Speedskating?

After the 23-year-old repped Chicago’s South Side Saturday by winning the 1,000-meter speedskating event and entered record books as the first black athlete to claim an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history – Davis showed little initial emotion after it became apparent he had won the event, and followed it up with an awkwardly-cold interview to NBC’s Melissa Stark. Why all the drama?


In a nutshell, Davis and his mother, Cherie, have issues with U.S. Speedskating dating back to his early years with the team. Cherie believes the organization did things to sabotage the success of her only child because of his skin color. The organization vehemently denies her allegations.

As a result of their long-running feud with U.S. Speedskating, Davis doesn't train with the national program, and frequently voices his opinion about a lack of marketing opportunities. He is also more than happy to let his mother voice her opinion of the organization – which she does willingly and often.

Davis has always had to battle haters who joked about his love of the sport. As folks in his neighborhood worshipped the Bears, the White Sox and Michael Jordan’s Bulls, Davis was into Bonnie Blair, and proudly wore a sweatshirt bearing the face of speedskating’s most famous female champion. Needless to say, he was teased quite a bit. The sport’s uniform, a tight-fitting body suit, didn’t help matters - and neither did the sport’s domination by Caucasians.

Davis said he would tell his childhood naysayers, “Maybe I can be the Michael Jordan of speedskating."

On the flipside, Davis said he received constant ill-will from white folks who didn’t think too much of him competing in the sport. He says hate-filled messages were sent to his personal Web site — "people saying they hoped I would fall, break my leg, using the n-word," he said.

As for his current Olympics run, much drama has been made over Davis’ decision not to compete in the team pursuit competition, and instead focus all of his energy on winning the individual races – such as Saturday’s 1000-meter and tomorrow’s 1500 meter race (Feb. 21). Davis’ choice to forgo the team sport has some critics denouncing the move as selfish. Former speedskating champion Eric Heiden said Davis was “not being a team player.�

There is also a nasty rivalry going on with U.S. teammate Chad Hedrick, whose time Davis clobbered Saturday en route to the gold medal. Hedrick has criticized Davis’ decision to forgo the team pursuit because it took away a great source of speed. The team was eventually knocked out by Italy in the quarterfinals. According to reports, Hedrick believed the team would’ve won with Davis in the lineup. The loss left Hedrick short of his goal to go after Heiden’s record of five gold medals at Lake Placid.

Throughout his time at the Olympics, Hedrick has been bombarded with questions about his rivalry with Davis. After Davis’ win on Saturday, reporters asked Hedrick if he was at least happy for the guy.

"Shani skated fast today," Hedrick said. "That's about all I have to say about that."

Davis will face Hedrick Tuesday night in the 1500 meter race, an event Davis dominated until Hedrick snatched away a world record. Sporting a Chicago White Sox cap following Saturday’s victory, a reporter asked Davis if he will specifically go after Hedrick’s record during the race.

"I'm not trying to beat Chad. I'm trying to beat everyone," he replied.

Davis’ breaking of racial barriers in the sport was downplayed when asked about it by reporters after Saturday’s performance. "It's a breakthrough," Davis said, "but it's what people make of it."

He did, however, take note of the hard work that led to his place atop the medal stand.

"If you put your mind to it and you believe it, you can achieve it," he said. "You cannot give up — even if the road is a tough road."

 

that guy sucks, no sportsmanship, self centered and not skating for the country which is the purpose of the Olympics--

OHNO and CHEEKS, now those guys are real men, that other boy needs to grow up and get the chip off his shoulder

 

Come Tuck you don't know the whole story man. You don't know how they treated that dude you just getting one person's side of the story and why do you gotta call the one black person a boy he is a man like everyone else.

 

I can only imagine what Shani Davis went through over the years breaking into that sport. Some are trying to act as though he's not human and should have ran smiling to support his teammates who treated him badly over the years. Hopefully, the Olympic committee will delve further into these issues before criticizing Davis. Ohno is his best friend and probably understands how they operate.

 

Some people just like to generalize,They hate to see young black men stand up to a system that shunned him but wanted him around when they thought they could get a gold medal out of him,he did the right thing I would have told their asses no also.

 

he is a boy to me, both of them, they are 20 years younger than me

 

If you over 18 your a man.

 

not in the US, many of the 18 plus are still playing with childrens toys, so they may be 18 in age but are not emotionally or mentally

 

Give me a break. Shani Davis did the right thing. I'm glad he got his and to hell with the haters.