Speedskating: Davis aiming for 5 golds at Olympics

Once again, Shani Davis has decided not to skate the team pursuit at the Olympics.

But the speedskating world-record holder does plan to race all five individual distances at the 2010 Vancouver Games -- with a little help from rival Chad Hedrick -- something that hasn't been attempted by an American in nearly 30 years.

"Shani's amazing," said Guy Thibault, the high-performance director for U.S. Speedskating.

Attempting to match the legendary Eric Heiden's five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games would be awfully tough, but even coming close could cement Davis -- already the world-record holder at 1,000 and 1,500 meters -- as one of the greatest all-around skaters his sport has ever seen. Most skaters specialize in the sprints, middle or long distances.

His decision is sure to stir debate, however.

Davis said earlier this month that he planned to skate the team event in Vancouver, after notoriously feuding with Hedrick over his decision to skip it at the 2006 Turin Games. That appeared to be another step in the peace-making process between the two, who have been more cordial with one another since Hedrick started a family, embraced his religion and changed his attitude.

"It's still Shani vs. Chad again," Hedrick said recently, "but it's a lot different terms now."

The Americans surely would be a top medal threat with Davis in the team pursuit lineup, too.

---

Advertisement

---

Without him, they finished sixth at the Turin Games.

But Davis did not explain his decision, declining to comment on the final day of the U.S. Speedskating Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval on Wednesday, when the rest of the team for Vancouver was finalized but he did not compete.

Unlike four years ago, when federation officials did not announce that Davis had made the same decision in advance of the Turin Games, Thibault confirmed that Davis will skate only the individual events -- and that Hedrick turned down the opportunity to deny Davis one of his spots.

Hedrick held the top qualifying spot in the 10,000 meters, and could have knocked Davis off the team at that distance by claiming it by the end of the day.

But Hedrick had been planning all along to skip his sport's most grueling race in order to focus on shorter ones in which he feels stronger. He wound up sticking with that plan, in part because he has a bad back that "can't handle the stress for that long."

That allowed Davis to claim the spot -- in addition to those at 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 5,000 meters -- while Salt Lake City's Ryan Bedford earned the second of the two American places in the 10,000 by winning the event Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Park City's Nick Pearson and Magna's Rebekah Bradford won their races to earn the final spots in the 1,000 -- Bradford, after being allowed a re-skate following her fall near the finish -- while Park City's Maria Lamb qualified in the women's 5,000. Pearson already qualified in the 500.

"I'm happy as could be," he said.

But Davis' decision to skate five events in the Olympics remained in the issue of the day.

It marked a change from the intentions he expressed barely two weeks ago at a World Cup event at the Utah Olympic Oval, when he said he wanted to skate the team event and had "no ambitions or motivations" to skate the 10,000.

The lure of sporting history might have proved too great, however, and Hedrick did not press the issue the way he did four years ago.

"I don't have an opinion on it at all," said Hedrick, who plans to skate the 1,000, 1,500 and 5,000 in addition to the team pursuit. "We have great skaters. We have great young skaters who are coming up, and I'll skate with them and we'll represent the country the best we can. ... We'll still be in contention for a medal."

While Trevor Marsicano, Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck will join Hedrick in the pool for the three-man team event, Davis will embark on an ambitious schedule that will include five finals in 10 days. He has the ability to finish in the top five of any of his races, Thibault said, and the schedule lines up reasonably well, with the 5,000 first on Feb. 13 and the 10,000 not until Feb. 23 -- after his middle-distance specialities.

Thibault didn't have any problem with Davis deciding against the team pursuit, either.

"We respect that," he said. "It's a tough schedule. He's in every event, and he really wants to do well. ... I'd rather know that and work with the guys that we have [in the team pursuit]. We have a strong team."

Source