Shani Davis

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 (1,000-m) and the fifth black Winter Olympics medalist. He also won the silver in the 1,500-m. He won the allround World Allround Championships in both 2005 and 2006, after winning the silver medal in 2004, and won the World Single Distance Championships 1,500-m in 2004. Davis has set a total of five world records, three of them standing as of end-of-season 2006: 1:07.03 in the 1,000-m, 1:42.68 in the 1,500-m, and 145.742 in the allround samalog.

Davis is noted for his stature. At 6'2" (188 cm), he is the tallest American speed skater.[1] Since 2002, Davis has trained out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.


Early life

Davis's father, Reginald Shuck, picked his son's name (Shani) out of a Swahili dictionary. The English translation is a mixture of "light" and "weight".[2] 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, Davis switched to ice skating. Davis'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, Davis was winning regional races in his age groups, earning the admiration of his friends and Northbrook rivals alike. Davis was once next door neighbor of
Canadian star and competitor Jeremy Wotherspoon.[3]

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



Career

Junior level competition

At 16, Davis was invited to Lake Placid, New York 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, Michigan, 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. His height has always made him unique among short trackers, as most are much shorter, making it easier to race low to the ice.[1] "It's hard for me to get low and do all this leaning and trying to protect my track," said Davis.[4]


2002 Winter Olympic Games

Olympic qualification race controversy

In December of 2001, 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 Davis to qualify, he would have to actually win the final race. As both Ohno and Smith were also participating, Davis would have to beat them both. Since Ohno had been dominant in the meet to this point, winning every race he entered with ease, a win by Davis seemed to be a long shot. US Team Equipment manager and longtime speed skater Paul Marchese was overheard saying before the race, "Shani could make the Olympic Team if he wins this race. But not today."

However, the 1,000m race would end with Ohno coming in third, Smith second and Davis at the top of the podium. Davis's first place finish earned him enough points to move past Tommy O'Hare in the final point standings and to qualify for sixth place. Davis 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's, intentionally threw the race so that Davis would win.[5] After returning to Colorado Springs, O'Hare would file a formal complaint. For three days, Ohno, Smith and Davis stood before an arbitration panel as three of their fellow skaters testified that they heard Ohno telling Smith that he was going to let Davis win.[6]

Ohno would later confess that he subconsciously held back for fear of suddenly crashing into Davis or Smith, a common occurrence in the sport, pointing out that he didn't need to win the race because he already had a spot on the team. Question persisted that if Ohno had really held back, why did he keep passing Ron Biondo? Some speculated that Ohno was holding off Biondo from challenging Smith, as Smith also needed to finish ahead of Biondo in order to secure a spot in the 1,000m for Salt Lake. Even this scenario would have been a violation of the rules of team skating. Both claims went unproven in the arbitration case, and all three were absolved of guilt.

On February 13, 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."[7] Cazeneuve would, however, also publish the comments of Outside Life Network commentator Todd Harris and 1998 Winter Olympian speed skater Eric Flaim, which were made during the broadcast of the race; both men agreed that Ohno and Smith hadn't skated at 100%.

Wanting to concentrate more on his long track skating, and living at the time in a town with no long track, Davis moved back to Marquette, Michigan the following season. 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, Davis was informed that he would not be competing in the games, and instead was chosen to be an alternate. As Davis had only finished sixth in the trials and only four skaters can take part. Later that year, Davis would take first in the 1,500m long track race during the 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, Davis 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, 2005 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 third World Cup match in the fall of 2005, skating the 1,000m in 1.07,03. Davis turned in such fast times during this match that he automatically qualified for three Olympic races, allowing him to [8] skip the Olympic trials that gave him so much grief in Salt Lake City.


2006 Winter Olympic Games

Torino and the "team pursuit" controversy

Davis'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 alongside him.
Since the team pursuit event's inception at the senior level in the 2004-2005 season, Davis had never practiced or participated in the event and U.S. Speed skating never expressed an interest in Davis skating the team pursuit event. In April 2005, U.S. Speed skating voted that it could appoint skaters to the Olympic Pursuit Team who had not otherwise made the team in an individual event. Having never skated the pursuit event, Davis submitted his declaration to U.S. Speed skating informing them of his intention to skate the 1,000m, 1,500m, and 5,000m. On December 31, 2005, U.S. Speed skating named the maximum allotted 5 member team (K.C. Boutiette, Chad Hedrick, Charles Ryan Leveille, Clay Mull and Derek Parra). However, upon arriving in Torino, without Davis' knowledge or consent, the U.S. coaches named Davis as a substitute to the pursuit team. In case of an injury after the team had entered the competition track, substitution would be permitted if an International Skating Union (ISU) Withdrawal Form had been presented to and accepted by the Referee.[9] There were no such injuries which meant that Davis was not even eligible to skate the team pursuit event at the Olympics.
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 K.C. Boutiette and Derek Parra for the finals.[10] Within hours, articles denouncing Davis as a poor teammate, unpatriotic and selfish were posted on the Internet, hitting the newspapers the next day leaving Davis having to defend himself and make up excuses for not skating an event he was never eligible to skate in the first place while U.S. Speed skating remained silent. Ironically, one of the reasons why Davis said he did not want to skate the pursuit event was so that the two skaters who had not earned spots in any individual event and had been brought to Torino specifically to skate the team pursuit would have a chance to compete—a chance that Davis was denied during the 2002 Games. "It was a difficult decision for me," Davis said. "Athletes came here just for [team] pursuit. I came here just for the 1,000 meters, the 1,500 meters, the 5,000 meters." [11]

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."[12]

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 quarter finals 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 November 2006, journalists continue to insist that Davis "pulled out," "skipped," "opted out" of the team pursuit[13]. "Shani did not pull out of the team pursuit because Shani never entered the team pursuit event," said Tom Cushman, who was the long-track coach in the '06 games, [14], adding: "Shani has been done an injustice."



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, Hedrick won bronze. The gold went to Italian skater Enrico Fabris.


Post-Olympic performance

Davis won the final 1,000m World Cup event of the 2006 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."[2]


Personal life

Davis is slated to finish his undergraduate studies this summer from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich. Davis loves science and wants to become a teacher.[15]
Davis is a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan, he proudly wore his White Sox cap at the 2006 Olympic Games.

Apolo Ohno and Davis are best friends,[5] and Davis visited the set of Dancing with the Stars on the night Ohno won.



External links

shanidavis.org , Official Shani Davis website

Shani Davis' U.S. Olympic Team bio

Shani Davis at SkateResults.com

Photos of Shani Davis

"Outside the Lines: Was the Fix In?" Transcript interviewing members of the 2002 Olympic speed skating team