Davis-Hedrick Feud Takes Center Stage

By Todd McClamroch in News on Feb 22, 2006 8:38PM

Not since Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan have two skaters received such attention for their feud. This week, all eyes have been on American speed skaters Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick and their feud that began when Davis opted not to skate on the team captained by Hedrick in the Team Pursuit event. That decision is thought by some to have cost Hedrick, and the U.S., a medal and labeled Davis a selfish skater.

During the lead-up to the 1500m event, an event both Hedrick and Davis have held a world record for, the question was which one would get the final word by winning the gold. But an athlete that was able to focus on skating rather than a media circus took the gold, Italian Enrico Fabris. Davis earned the silver medal while Hedrick finished with the bronze.

The drama then continued off the ice when the two attended an awkward press conference in which they sat at the same table with a huge chasm between them and for the most part spoke as if the other was not in the room.

During the press conference, Davis expressed some of his concerns about Hedrick, saying, "He wants to win, I want to win. It would have been nice—I'm just throwing it out there—it would have been nice if after the 1,000 meters he could have been a good teammate and shook my hand just like I shook his hand or hugged him after he won the 5,000 meters."

Chicagoist half-expected Jon Lovitz to leap from the sidelines whining, "I just want to be loved is that so wrong?"

In the coming days, as the Olympics wind down, there will be less attention given to this feud, and Shani will return to where he is loved and show off his two Olympic medals to Chicago.

Photo via Yahoo! News.