RICHMOND, British Columbia — Sounds like 2006 all over again. Shani Davis stirred up another dispute with U.S. Speedskating over team pursuit just two days before the start of the Winter Olympics, saying he decided not to enter the event because he
RICHMOND, British Columbia — Sounds like 2006 all over again. Shani Davis stirred up another dispute with U.S. Speedskating over team pursuit just two days before the start of the Winter Olympics, saying he decided not to enter the event because he felt pressured to be part of the national program. Davis skates on his own without any financial support from the U.S. governing body, largely because of a testy relationship that seemed to be getting better. “I don’t have any obligations to U.S. Speedskating. I pay all my expenses. I’m a solo entity,” he said Thursday after a training session at the Richmond Olympic Oval. “I just felt they were putting pressure on me to be part of their organization, yet they don’t give me the same benefits of the organization. In short, why should I?” The first African American to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Games, Davis also made it clear he’s still upset about the issues that led to a nasty feud with teammate Chad Hedrick at the 2006 Turin Games. “It’s really unfortunate,” Davis said. “There was still a lack of proper communication about the actual events that happened, and it just deterred me away from wanting to do it.” He skated in one team pursuit event during the World Cup season — helping the Americans to victory — and said in early December he looked forward to being part of the squad at the Olympics. The U.S. would have been a medal favorite if the world-record holder in the 1,000 and 1,500 meters had been among their skaters. But Davis decided not to enter his name for pursuit before a Dec. 23 deadline imposed by U.S. Speedskating. “I tried to be the bigger man,” he said. “I did try it. I actually even liked it. But there’s only so much I can do. I just got tired of the constant scrutiny of the misconceptions that people were allowed to know from 2006 and beyond. So I cleaned my hands of it. I just moved on.” U.S. Speedskating officials had no immediate comment. Four years ago, Davis claims he never asked to be considered for team pursuit — a new event at those games — and felt team officials left him open to criticism by failing to explain that he didn’t actually drop out. “They tried to pin it on me, and it really wasn’t my fault,” he said. Hedrick was the most vocal critic, implying that Davis was letting down his country by failing to give the U.S. its best shot at a medal. That led to an ugly feud that overshadowed the brilliant performances of both skaters — Davis won a gold and a silver, while Hedrick captured a medal of each color. Turning to the only other event he won’t be skating at these games, Davis said he dropped out of the 10,000 meters because he wanted to make sure fellow Illinois skater Jonathan Kuck got to compete in his first Olympics. Kuck had been scheduled to skate only the team pursuit and was in danger of losing his spot because of rules designed to keep the total number of skaters within IOC-imposed limits. Davis passed up a chance to be the first American since Eric Heiden in 1980 to skate all five individual events. “It’s not so much about my scheduling and being busy,” Davis said. “I’m busy all the time. It’s more just for the development of the sport. I’m not going to be around forever. But (Kuck) is young and he has a really bright future in the sport and I wanted him to be able to take in an Olympics for what they’re worth.” U.S. Speedskating hoped to avoid the sort of dispute that erupted at Turin by imposing a deadline for skaters to make their intentions known for team pursuit more than a month ahead of the Olympics, even though countries can make changes to their team as late as three days before the event. So much for escaping controversy. “If U.S. Speedskating would have made a decision based on leaving it open up until the actual event instead of trying to put out a press release to get attention, then maybe we could have worked something out. But since they did that, there’s nothing more I can do,” Davis said. “My whole thing was: Why name a team in December? Why don’t you name it at the Olympics? Why is it so important? If you want the best team, why don’t you go off of who’s doing what at the Olympics?” Davis insisted that he might have taken part in team pursuit if not for the early deadline. “Why not?” he said. “It’s the last event of the competition and who doesn’t want to go out with a bang or a fight, but it’s not possible.” Now, there’s no chance Davis will participate in team pursuit, even if U.S. Speedskating has a change of heart. “I don’t want to deal with it anymore,” he said. “So I’m not dealing with it anymore.” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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