US speedskaters Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis have revealed the
full enmity of their bitter feud, a rivalry that helped cost them
the Olympic 1,500m gold.
Italy's Enrico Fabris won in 1 min, 45.97sec Tuesday, beating
1,000m Olympic champion Davis by .16 of a second with 1,500m world
record-holder Hedrick third in 1:46.22.
"Shani and I wanted to prove who was the best among each other
and somebody else slid in there and got it from us," Hedrick
said.
"We were too worried about each other."
Davis played down the man-to-man duel, saying: "This isn't a
heavyweight title fight."
Hedrick arrived seeking a record-tying five gold medals and won
the 5,000m but saw the US team pursuit line-up weakened when Davis
pulled out to rest for the 1,000m.
Hedrick's dream ended with a pursuit loss. Davis won 1,000m
gold.
A tense post-race news conference where the US rivals traded
put-downs ended with Davis revealing the depth of his anger.
"It would have been nice if after the 1,000m Chad would have
hugged me and shook my hand and congratulated me after I had hugged
him and congratulated him after he won the 5,000," Davis said.
"Wouldn't even shake my hand. Typical Chad," Davis, the first
black man to win an individual Winter Olympic title, muttered as he
departed.
Hedrick fired back.
"I felt betrayed. Not only did he not participate but he didn't
even discuss it with me," Hedrick said. "I felt we blew a real
chance for a gold medal."
Outspoken Texan Hedrick, 28, and mild-mannered inner-city
Chicagoan Davis, 23, agreed on nothing.
"I think it's great for the sport pitting Shani against me,"
Hedrick said. "A lot of people around the world want to see the top
two competitors battle. It's up to us to do that without taking it
personally.
"There's nothing to kiss and make up about. We're competitors.
If we don't feel that way we're never going to win."
Davis spoke of wanting to evade the Olympic spotlight to achieve
better times and jabbed at Hedrick, who switched to ice from
in-line skating in 2003.
"I love the sport despite the people who are only short-timers
in the hotel of speedskating," Davis said.
"We're not Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. We're here to do
our job. It's not like we're going to go fight each other and roll
around in the snow. We're adults. People need to understand. We're
not perfect."
Davis took a swipe at the media for writing spite over
sport.
"It's exciting enough in Europe and they don't highlight
everybody's belch and fart," he said.
"When you try to put things in a negative turn, people giving
attention to that when they wouldn't otherwise, I don't like that
at all. People shouldn't battle at all."
Hedrick said people cannot battle enough.
"Without the competition between us we wouldn't be the skaters
we are," said Hedrick. "He has a different approach, some different
opinions. We bring out the best in each other."
Davis spoke of the honour of simply winning an Olympic medal
when many leave empty handed.
Hedrick's attitude was gold or nothing, saying: "Anything less
than a win - second, fourth, 10th, 80th - it's all the same to
me."
Hedrick spoke of retirement, saying: "I plan to do some other
things and turn the page. I want to do lots of new things, even
some acting in Hollywood."
Davis noted that. "I'm not a phoney. There's no way I'd be a
'Hollywood' person."
When it came to the race, they disagreed on how they might have
fared had they raced against one another to topple Fabris.
"I'm really glad we weren't in the same pair," Hedrick said. "We
would have been trying to kill each other out there."
(China Daily February 23, 2006)