Shani Davis......why the idiot attitude?

[Wineguy]

You just won the Gold medal. Did anyone else think he was an idiot? Does anyone here care? I know it was Speedskating, but still, I could not have been the only person that saw this interview after he won. What an asshole he was!!!!

:fingerc: :cursin: :moon: :thefinger

 

[ez$]

had tension with his teammate and think his mind was definately not on the interview.... USA wins gold thats what counts! !

 

[nervousTic]

His teammate was a douche. That said, enjoy your moment Shani. He's going to regret acting that way for the rest of his life.

 

[Wineguy]

Yes, I agree that he will regret it. National television and show your ass.....for what reason? You have life by the testicles, first African American Male to win a Gold in the Winter Games, and you act like that? Go cry to Momma. Too bad.

 

[Sun Tzu]

This is the sclub who blew off the team event.

You know "TEAM:, for your country.

No medal for him would have been better. Or slip and get a silver like that skanky hot-dogging bogus X games snowboarder.

 

[yyz]

This is the sclub who blew off the team event.

You know "TEAM:, for your country.

No medal for him would have been better. Or slip and get a silver like that skanky hot-dogging bogus X games snowboarder.

No....this is a guy who trained to win the Thousand, and won it.

 

[acehistr8]

Speedskating in this country has never been a team event. If you heard what his mom alluded to in the interview, they are a team in name only. They all have their seperate beefs with the US Federation, they all have different sponsorship deals etc. They arent a team. This isnt a true team sport, its more like an individual sport which happens to have a made up event called Team Pursuit - that no one really likes anyway. No different than say if 4 different individual figure skaters were asked to put aside their individual multiple event training and do some team event, knowing they could get injured or whatever.

I have no problem with what he did, I have a problem that he acted like a dick. But he came to these cames to win the thousand, he said up front he wouldnt do the team pursuit, yet the media tried to make him out to be the bad guy when they found out his teammates were trying to get him to do it. He trained for his specialty event and won it. I think his other a-hole teammate could have at least clapped for him when he won, even if he didnt mean it, he looks like a dick too.

More importanly, WELCOME BACK MELISSA STARK!!!!

 

[saint]

Missed it, what did he say?

 

[jhawksoon]

Hedrick really didn't come out and try to show up Shani Davis with his remarks but I think he did get his point across. From what the media is saying it has shaken up the whole skating team. I think Hedrick was just the only one that would say anything about it. The Olympics is supposed to be about representing your country, and clearly the American team could have used Shani Davis to add to their medal count. Costas stated that every other country had their best skater out there for the team portion except for the U.S. I think it was selfish for Shani Davis but I also think blacks always have that "me against the world" attitude. All that Davis did was have his own country rooting against him instead of for him.

 

[Sun Tzu]

Eric Heiden 26 years ago wins 5 races in 7 days.

Hendrick races 5,000 freakin meters and comes back.

This guys was worried about 4 days?

Bullshit - the training nonsense is simply nonsense. He was out there skating hard that day practicing.

 

[Mjolnir]

didnt, see the interview. gonna look for it. just saw an interview with his teammate, and eric heiden. i respect heidens opinion and he didnt seem pleased.
your supposed to represent america.

 

[yyz]

None of those guys gave two shits about this kid coming up, from what I have heard. (and knowing "skating white America", they didn't give this dark skinned chap too much time until now, I'm guessing.....)

Here's a kid laughed at by the blacks, and snubbed by the whites, and he needs to be a "team player" all of the sudden? Give me a break.

 

[saint]

None of those guys gave two shits about this kid coming up, from what I have heard.

If I were you I wouldn't believe everything I hear.

 

[ctownguy]

None of those guys gave two shits about this kid coming up, from what I have heard. (and knowing "skating white America", they didn't give this dark skinned chap too much time until now, I'm guessing.....)

Here's a kid laughed at by the blacks, and snubbed by the whites, and he needs to be a "team player" all of the sudden? Give me a break.

He made the olympic team as a team member when he qualified for a spot on the skating team.

Others in the past have raced alot before their best events ie sun tzu's post because they are there as an American skater not individual.

If he wanted to stand out alone he should have entered has an independent. Just another I'm the victim story. :violin:

 

[acehistr8]

Davis or any other individual event athlete trains for four years to do a set # of events, he knows what he's doing on what days and how much time in between - his schedule is blocked out hourly for the Olympics. I went to high school with a guy who will be jumping in Monday nights aerials and who Silvered in Park City. They dont just have big empty blocks of time available to suddenly do another event with a weeks notice, they know well in advance how their time looks and practically what they are going to be doing hour by hour - especially if like Davis you are doing 3 or 4 events in 7 days. I think you are drastically simplifying the "just go out there and race" attitude - he hears a week beforehand that they want him to "slip" this race in? Heiden knew ahead of time what races he was going to run and could plan for them.

Lest we slip into revisionist history, remember that Eric Heiden was a complete DICK not only to his teammates but to the media and his attitude to the rest of the country. So dont hold this guy up like hes supposed to be some perfect athlete we are supposed to idolize. Do any of you remember him in the actual olympics?

====

"History will not remember Shani Davis for a specific decision he made or for any personality quirks he has. Nor should we. How many remember the disturbance Heiden caused? He said the Olympics were overrated. He said, "Heck, gold medals, what can you do with them? I'd rather get a nice warmup suit. That's something I can use. Gold medals just sit there. When I get old, maybe I could sell them if I need the money."

That didn't go over any better in 1980 than Davis' outspokenness does in 2006. But who cares? Dozens or hundreds or even thousands of African-American kids will put on skates because of Shani Davis, and that is so much more of a legacy to America than joining one extra race. All due respect to Hedrick, but Davis goes stride for stride with the Texan in contribution to Team USA, and he might even be moving ahead. Perhaps Heiden's modern-day complement is not Hedrick, but Davis."

 

[jhawksoon]

Ace, you are evidently old enough to have watched and remembered the 1980 Olympics and what stuck in your mind about Heiden was his attitude, not his achievements. Although Davis will have his gold medal in the record books, what I, and thousands of others, will remember him for will be him turning his back on the United States skating team. Maybe this is a blessing in the hope that all of these supposed young black kids that will be picking up skates will see how not to represent themselves in the Olympics.

 

[yyz]

If I were you I wouldn't believe everything I hear.

In this case, I think I will.

 

[acehistr8]

His attitude? Yes I remember at the time that it absolutely sucked. What I will always remember about Heiden was his total disdain for the medals saying how they dont matter. Dont you think that its totally ironic that Bode Miller is absolutely SLAMMED by todays media for saying the same thing, what a turn of events. What if Heiden prepared for and was scheduled to be in his 5 events, but they added a 6th to his schedule the week before. Would you have looked at him differently for turning it down if he went out and won 5 out of 5? Would we have said well he planned for 5, he won 5, how could you expect him to add a 6th event?

I am glad that everyone here thinks its OK to just surprise a world class athlete at the last minute with a competition on their schedule the DAY BEFORE their best race, but I think its *extremely naive* to write it off to what he should do out of "patriotic duty". Davis had trained his whole life for that one race, that was his specialty, thats what he was there for - so why is it OK to think that he would add an event the DAY BEFORE the event of his lifetime? Because of his "team"? The team pursuit is a joke, its essentially a made up event, in World Cup races, it is the LAST event run so that skaters can concentrate on their individual events. Anyone that thinks US Speedskating in 2006 is a team sport is deulding themselves because it is not.

What about sprinters in the Olympics? Take a guy who runs the 100, 200, 400 and maybe the hurdles. Lets say his specialty is the 400, hes trained for it and its his best event. But a week before the Olypmics start they say hey, I know the 400 is what youve been waiting for your whole life and its your best event, but how would you feel about running the 4x400 relay the DAY BEFORE? Just because its skating, do we think less of it?

I know this is all fresh in everyones mind right now, but I think the real story is yet to be written on what really went on. Excellent article by Eric Adelson here that I quoted from:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/winter06/speed/columns/story?id=2335461

 

[jhawksoon]

Speaking of naive, do you really think the American team asked Davis to be a part of the pursuit the week of the Olympics. For some reason I don't think the American Olympic Federation waits to place its participants in specific events the week of a competition that only comes around every 4 years. He's only in three events, it's not like he is going to wear out. There is no comparison to any of these other athletes that already have a loaded schedule of four or five events. Whether or not, he should have skated, his whole attitude was piss pour and I will always remember him for that.

 

[acehistr8]

Say it was a month before or more, but its still scheduled for the day before the one event he's trained four years for, one day. You think 12 hours is enough recovery time for him to be at peak form for his specialty event?