Speedskater who whined about not carrying US flag has horrible Olympic debut
Shani Davis is a decorated U.S. Olympian with two gold and two silver speedskating medals under his belt.
That doesn’t include the 11 titles he has won in the World Championships or the nine world records he has broken during his career.
Now, however, the 35-year-old Davis is aging out of the sport, and he isn’t doing it on the right terms.
Before the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang even started, Davis skipped the opening ceremonies, refusing to walk with his American teammates.
Davis was upset about losing out on carrying the American flag into the stadium for the ceremonies, a decision that was decided by a coin-flip as the tiebreaker between Davis and veteran luger Erin Hamlin. Each had received four votes from their peers.
The five-time Olympian called out Team USA on social media for “dishonorably” flipping a coin to decide.
https://twitter.com/ShaniDavis/status/961534274586464256
Davis even insinuated the coin-flip was racist with his mention of Black History Month.
After creating controversy off the ice, he has performed poorly on it so far at the Pyeongchang Games.
He finished 19th in the 1,500 meters on Tuesday.
Afterward, reporters were told Davis would answer “skating questions only.”
“There are no excuses for not performing on the ice,” he said, “except for that I just wasn’t strong enough to compete with the high, top-level guys here.”
Davis will race once more in Pyeongchang: He’ll compete in the 1,000-meter race Feb. 23.
This isn’t the first time Davis’ mentality has been questioned. In 2006, after Davis’ first Olympic gold, fellow U.S. Olympian Casey FitzRandolph called out Davis for his attitude.
“If he feels it’s him against the rest of the world,” FitzRandolph said. “He’s the one that has pitted himself against the rest of the world.”
That assessment appears to be accurate as Davis also split from the sport’s national governing body to train on his own and ripped the U.S. Olympic Committee for a perceived lack of support.
To top it off, he even blamed Team USA’s Under Armour attire in the 2014 Olympic Sochi games as a reason the U.S. was not successful.
It’s unfortunate that Davis has chosen to pit the world against himself. He’s undoubtedly one of the greatest skaters in the history of the sport, but his legacy will be tainted by his actions off the ice.
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