Shani Davis

Shani Davis (born August 13, 1982 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American speed skater who competes in both short track and long track speed skating. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Davis became the first black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual sport (1,000m) and the fourth black Winter Olympics medalist.

Davis notable for his stature. At 6'2", he is the tallest American speed skater; most speed skaters are much shorter, making it easier to race low to the ice.Prospero, Linda (2006). "Shani Davis makes history" LaStampa.it (accessed June 26, 2006) "It's hard for me to get low and do all this leaning and trying to protect my track," said Davis.http://www.phillyburbs.com/olympics/2002/news/0207davis.htm Since 2002, Shani has trained out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Early life

Davis learned to roller skate at the age of two. By the time he was three, he could skate so quickly that he had to be slowed down by the rink's skate guards. At six, Shani switched to ice skating. Shani's mother Cherie worked for a lawyer whose son was an elite level speed skater. At the suggestion of her boss, lawyer and speed skating official Fred Benjamin, Cherie enrolled her son at the Evanston Speed Skating Club. Within two months, Shani was winning regional races in his age groups, earning the admiration of his friends and Northbrook rivals alike.

Determined that her son reach his maximum potential, Cherie would wake Shani up in the mornings to run a mile on a nearby track to build up his endurance. In order to be closer to Shani's skating club, she and Shani moved from Hyde Park to Rogers Park.

Career

Junior level competition

At 16, Davis was invited to Lake Placid to participate in a development program for young speed skaters. After training there for a year, Davis decided to pursue his Olympic dreams and moved to Marquette, Mich., to further his training. There, he would graduate from Marquette Senior High School, where he ran track his senior year.

Davis earned spots on both the long track and short track teams at the 1999 junior world championship, simultaneously making the national team. In 2000, he made history by become the first U.S. skater to make the long and short track teams at the Junior World Teams, a feat he would accomplish again in 2001 and 2002.

2002 qualification race controversy

In January of 2002, Davis traveled to Utah to race for a spot on the 2002 Winter Olympics short track team. Teammates Apolo Ohno and Rusty Smith already had slots on the six-man team due to points earned from earlier races, and Ron Biondo was a lock for the third spot. In order for Shani to qualify, he would have to not only beat Tommy O'Hare's time (O'Hare would skate in a subsequent heat), but would have to beat Ohno and Smith as well. The 1,500m race would end with Ohno coming in 3rd, Smith 2nd and Davis at the front of the line. O'Hare couldn't match Shani's time, and Shani became the first African-American skater to earn a spot on the team.

However, the victory was short-lived, as rumors began to swirl that Ohno and Smith, both good friends of Davis', intentionally threw the race so that Shani would win. After returning to Colorado Springs, O'Hare would file a formal complaint against Davis. For three days, Davis stood before an arbitration panel as three of his fellow skaters testified that they heard Ohno telling Davis that he was going to let him win. But holes were poked in the stories of the skaters, and they all recanted their stories, causing the arbitrator to rule in Davis' favor. (In turn, Smith dropped his defamation lawsuit against O'Hare.) Ohno would later confess that he subconsciously held back for fear of crashing into Davis or Smith, pointing out that he didn't need to win the race because he already had a spot on the team.

On February 13th, 2002 Sports Illustrated writer Brian Cazeneuve published an article stating that, after reviewing the race, "To this day, there is no concrete proof that any skaters violated the spirit of competition."http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2002/news/2002/02/13/cazeneuve_ohno/ Cazeneuve would also publish the comments of Outside Life Network commentators Todd Harris and 1998 Winter Olympian speed skater Eric Flaim, which were made during the broadcast of the race. Both men agreed that while Ohno and Smith didn't skate at 100%, O'Hare looked psyched out before he even took the ice. "I don't know if you have words to describe it...I think he's just seen his chances of making the Olympic team disappear", Flaim was quoted as saying.

Wanting to concentrate more on his long track skating and living in a town with no long track, Davis left Colorado Springs, Colorado, headquarters to the U.S. National Short Track Team, and moved to Calgary. Once there, he trained with the 1998 short track gold medalist Derrick Campbell.

A dream deferred

Upon arriving in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Shani was informed that he would not be competing in the games; he was chosen to be an alternate. Thunderstruck, Davis would leave Utah before the final was held, arriving in Italy in time to compete in the world junior long-track championships. Davis would take first place in the 1,500m relay. Back in Salt Late City, the U.S. men's speed skating team would finish in 4th place. Of his Olympic "debut", Davis said: "I didn't even consider myself an Olympian. One day I was a hero, the next day I was a cheater."http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg08.html

Later that year, Davis would take first in the 1,500 long track race during 2002 Junior Country Match, again in Italy. He would also make the junior world championship team for the third consecutive year - the only U.S. skater to ever make the team three years in a row.

Turning pro

Davis made the jump from junior competition to men's speed skating in 2003. He became the North American long track champion in February of 2003, qualifying him for the World Championship in Göteborg. Not yet adjusted to skating in the men's division, Davis's scores were much lower than usual, and Davis finished 16th overall.

January of 2004 would find him a North American champion for the second consecutive year. Davis would finish in second place overall in the 2004 World Allround Long Track Championships in Hamar, Norway. In March, Shani won the 1,500m at the Men's World Single Distance Championships in Seoul, finishing the race in 1.48,64 in March of 2004.

Davis set three world records in 2005 - two of them in Salt Lake City, where Davis left the Olympics early three years prior. On January 9, 1995 at the World Championship Qualifier, he broke the 1,500m world record, recording a time of 1:43.33. He also set the world record for best overall time in the history of the Qualifiers - 149.359. A month later, Davis would win the World Champion all-round, scoring 150.778 points. In November, Davis would break another world record at the 2005 Fall World Cup 3, skating the 1000m in 1.07,03. This record is still standing. Davis turned in such fast times during World Cup 3 that he automatically qualified for three Olympic races, allowing him to http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/speedskating/2006-02-08-davis-speedskating-focus_x.htm skip the Olympic trials that gave him so much grief in Salt Lake City.

2006 Winter Olympic Games

Torino and the "team pursuit" controversy

Shani's teammate, Chad Hedrick, had a goal to match 1980 Olympian Eric Heiden's unprecedented record of five gold medals won in one Olympic session. Four of Hedrick's races were individual races, but the fifth race was the newest addition to Olympic speed skating - "team pursuit", requiring that Hedrick recruit two other skaters to compete with him.

A week before the race, Hedrick approached Davis to skate for Team USA. Davis hadn't skated a team pursuit since the World Junior Championships in 2002, where he and teammates Tucker Fredricks and Brady Thompson came in; fifth nor had he ever practiced the race with any of the other members of the team.http://www.skateresults.com/tournament/result/6181 Deciding to focus solely on his remaining two events - Shani had already skated the 5,000m, placing seventh - Shani turned down the third spot on Team USA.

On Saturday, February 11th, the lineup for Team USA was announced. Hedrick would skate with Clay Mull and Charles Ryan Leveille for the preliminary races, reserving veteran Olympians KC Boutiette and Derek Parra for the finals.http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/speedskating/2006-02-12-pursuit-names_x.htm Within hours, articles denouncing Shani as a poor teammate, unpatriotic and selfish were posted on the Internet, hitting the newspapers the next day. Ironically, one of the reasons why Shani opted to skip the team race was so that one of the alternate skaters would get a chance to compete - a chance that Davis was denied during the '02 games. "It was a difficult decision for me," Davis said. "Athletes came here just for ^* pursuit. I came here just for the 1,000 meters, the 1,500 meters, the 5,000 meters." http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/speed_skating/news?slug=dw-hedrick021106&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Much of the criticism towards Davis was from Hedrick himself. Two days before the official announcement, Hedrick stated, "I don't see what his logic is. We can't be beat if he skates. It's his decision. I'm not going to get in the middle of it. I would like him to be in the pursuit, but am I going to beg him? No."http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Sports&article=UPI-1-20060209-16053800-bc-oly-davis.xml Davis's logic was that he didn't want to risk injury or fatigue in a race just two days before the 1,000m, which was Shani's best race and best chance to win the gold. "...I'll be pretty upset if people got upset about my decisions and what I feel is best for me...I know what's best for me. And if I feel that not skating the pursuit will do me better for the 1,000 meters, then I'm going to do it...None of my teammates helped me get to where I am."http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/12/Sports/Davis_drops_out_of_te.shtml

Hedrick's dreams of five gold medals came to an abrupt halt on February 17. Switching Parra for Leveille, the United States men's pursuit team was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the competition despite skating the second fastest time of the quarter-final session. Newcomer Leveille crossed the finish line with Hedrick, but K.C. Boutiette failed to keep up with the pace near the end.

As of March 2006, journalists continue to insist that Davis "pulled out" of the team pursuit,http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11669428/ much to the aggravation of Cherie, who blogs at her son's http://shanidavis.org website under the username "daviscil". Cherie writes: "Now 82 media outlets have picked up on this Associated Press article (linked below), including MSNBC and USA Today, and continue to mislead the public with this misinformation that Shani "pulled out" of the team pursuit. Shani did not pull out of the team pursuit because Shani never entered the team pursuit event." Tom Cushman, who was the long-track coach in the '06 games, http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14051745.htm backed up Cherie's statement, adding: "Shani has been done an injustice."

Fellow American speedskater Joey Cheek publicly supported Davis' focus on the 1,000 meters. "I'm actually surprised that people think (Davis not racing the team pursuit) is such a negative thing. Some (reporters) were kind of harsh on him. He hasn't skated one (pursuit event) ever. He was focusing on both short track and long track. To do both would have been incredible." Five-time speedskating gold medalist and Olympic-team physician Eric Heiden also stated that Davis made the right choice.http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/speed_skating/news?slug=eh-heiden021906&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Shortly after the Games, Hedrick's coach Bart Schouten agreed: "Shani has made the right choices for his own performance."http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14051745.htm

Continued rivalry with Hedrick

Much hype was made over the 1,500 meter competition, where Davis and Hedrick would skate in the same race for a second time. Davis won the silver, narrowly beating the time of bronze medalist Hedrick. The gold went to Italian skater Enrico Fabris.

Post-Olympics races (2006)

Davis won the final 1,000 meter World Cup event of the season at Thialf, Heerenveen with a time of 1:08.91, becoming the first skater to skate below 1:09 in Heerenveen and also winning the overall World Cup on the 1,000 meters. He placed fourth overall in the 1,500 meters World Cup, despite only competing in three of the five races.

Davis then defended his World Allround Championships title in Calgary in March 2006 with a world record allround score of 145.742. At the competition, Davis was paired with rival Chad Hedrick in the 1,500-meter race, and dramatically broke Hedrick's own world record with a time of 1:42.68. Regarding his world allround title, Davis said, "To me, this is bigger than the Olympics. This medal is prestigious. Not only do you have to skate 500 meters, but you have to skate 10,000, you have to skate a 1,500 and a 5,000 and you only have two days to do it."http://chicago.about.com/od/sportsrecreation/p/020506_davis.htm

Personal records

DISTANCE	km/h	TIME	RECORD
500m	-	35.17
1,000m	-	1:07.03	(Current world record)
1,500m	-	1:42.68	(Current world record)
5,000m	-	6:10.23
10,000m	-	13:05.94

Trivia

Shani's father, Reginald Shuck, picked his son's name out of a Swahili dictionary. The English translation is a mixture of "light" and "weight".

Shani is slated to finish his undergraduate studies this summer from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich. Shani loves science and wants to become a teacher. http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/5056846/detail.html?qs=;t=11;tab=Bio

Shani was once next door neighbor of Canadian star and competitor Jeremy Wotherspoon.Starkman, Randy (2006). "Wotherspoon falls short" The Toronto Star (accessed June 26, 2006)

Shani is a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan, he proudly wore his White Sox cap at the 2006 Olympic Games.

Notes

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External links

Official Shani Davis Website
Shani Davis' U.S. Olympic Team bio
Photos of Shani Davis
"Outside the Lines: Was the Fix In?" Transcript interviewing members of the 2002 Olympic speed skating team

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