1500 meter - spoiler unless you've seen the race

[suffragette]

Congratulations Shani for getting the silver medal and pushing Hedrick back to the bronze.
Congratulations to Enrico Fabris for getting the hometown gold.

And who was the class act afterward?
Shani is all smiles and hugs Enrico to congratulate him.
Shani was gracious in the CBC interview, saying he he would have liked the gold, but gave it his best.

And who was Mr. Pissy? Yep, Bush's and NBC's boy - Hedrick.

[Harper_is_Bush]

1. Why is he called Bush's boy? Has he expressed support for chimp? nt

[suffragette]

2. Yes, he and his family both. n/t

[kittenpants]

3. Did you see the press conference afterwards?

Shani said it would have been nice if Hedrick had congratulated him (while Hedrick was sitting right beside him).

[suffragette]

5. Was that on NBC?

I'm on the west coast, so I watched it on CBC.
NBC hasn't shown it here yet.

Shani is a class act. Hedrick just shows himself again and again to be crass.

[kittenpants]

6. yeah, they showed in on NBC after the race n/t

[SPKrazy]

4. Pissy pants Jr. Chad Hedrick

I suspect he and the other white boys in this sport have never given Shani the time of day until he got good, and then suddenly Hedrick is ripping on Shani for not doing what he wanted.

Hedrick got his ass handed to him tonight though!

[suffragette]

7. Yep, I think you nailed that about Hedrick

I noticed through all this the stunningly different way that Shani is treated by skaters from other countries, as well as by Joey Cheek, who's another good guy.

When he won the gold, he took a victory lap with Wennemars, who is Dutch. Then Shani went and congratulated Joey, who had won the silver, and Joey hugged him. Then tonight Shani hugged Enrico Fabris, the Italian who won gold. And Shani seems to get along great with the Canadians, with whom he trains.

Tonight on CBC, after the race Hedrick was just skating around and pouting.

Since I haven't seen tonight's NBC coverage, I'm curious what they showed since a joyous, generous Shani doesn't seem to fit their script.

[SeattleGirl]

8. Shani impresses me also. He is definitely a good sport.

So is Joey, and many of the other athletes. Chad the PissAnt can go crawl in a hole for all I care.

[suffragette]

10. Yep, and NBC can join Hedrick in that hole.

[SPKrazy]

22. Hole Is Right!

[Poiuyt]

9. Isn't Joey Cheek the one who's donating his Olympic winnings to AIDS

relief in Africa? Or am I mixed up? And I didn't think the Olympics gave any winnings (other than some medal)

[kittenpants]

11. yeah, he donated the $25,000 from his gold and th $15,000 from his silver.

[suffragette]

12. Joey donated to an organization called "Right to Play"

Here's a quote from him:
"So I am donating the entire (winning) sum the USOC gives me ($25,000) to an organization, 'Right to Play,' that Johan Olav Koss (the Norwegian icon who won three gold medals in 1994 in Lillehammer) either started or gave to in 1994. It helps refugees in Chad, where there are over 60,000 persons displaced from their homes. I am going to be asking all of the Olympic sponsors if they will match my donation."


He also donated his $15,000 from the silver.

He and Shani are both great.

[petronius]

15. To be fair, I think that was Hedrick who hugged Fabris

right before Davis did. They just didn't congratulate each other...

[erpowers]

18. Showed the Hug- Playful Nature

The NBC coverage showed the hugs of both Fabris and Cheeks. They then showed the playful nature of Shani by showing him rubbing Fabris' head. They showed him in a pretty good light. I am not sure they could not show him in a good light in that he was nice to Fabris when interview and when photographs were taken of Fabris, Davis, and Hedrick after the race.

[napsi]

13. Congrats to Davis and Hendrick.......

they both skated well. I can see both points of view here and I will not disparage either athlete. It would have been nice to see them both overcome their pride and find a way to skate for the USA.

[suffragette]

14. "overcome their pride and find a way to skate for the USA." ?

Umm - Shani, Hedrick and Cheek all wore U.S. uniforms and all listened to the US National Anthem after winning their respective golds. They did ALL skate for the USA.

If you're refering to Shani's decision not to skate in one race - the team event, he had valid reaons:
He wasn't asked until a week before the event.
He hadn't trained for it.
He would be taking the place of someone who had trained for it, having been an alternate before he knew ho that felt.
It was the night before his best event, the 1,000 which he had a chance at the gold in. By saving his energy and then skating to the gold he was making history as the 1st African American to earn an individual gold medal in the Winter Olympics.

If all you've seen of this is NBC's biased coverage, you need to see more.
Here are two good places to start:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/19/SPG3NHBH2G1.DTL&hw=knapp&sn=006&sc=314

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/sports/speedskating/stories/index.shtml?/story/olympics/national/2006/02/18/Sports/wotherspoon060218.html

And let's take a look at a couple quotes form them:

Shani: "He's like mercury. He just rises,'' Shani Davis said of Joey Cheek, the silver medalist, seated to his left.


Hedrick, after the 1,000: "Once Shani beat me, I didn't care if I got a bronze," he said. "I'm here to win - it's all or nothing."

Pure class vs pure crass.

[Zech Marquis]

16. *'s boy is a prick

didn't have the class to celebrate winning the medal wih Shani and Enrico--maybe 8 will give his sorry ass a big Freedom medal huh? :evilgrin:

[erpowers]

17. Shani v. Hedrick

The two things that made me dislike Hedrick was this attitude that he seemed to have that everyone was there just to get him medals. Also I did not like the fact that he seemed to not want to acknowledge Shani's presence. On multiple occasions Hedrick was asked directly about Shani and refused to acknowledge Shani. First, when the sportscaster asked Hedrick if he was concerned about Shani ability and his holding the world record in the 1,000m he (Hedrick) mentioned some other skater without even mentioning Shani. Second, when Shani won the 1,000m Hedrick was asked if he was happy for Shani Hedrick answered "I'm happy for Joey (Cheeks)".

[Poiuyt]

19. Shani and the Team Pursuit

I just heard an interview on the radio with some writer for Sports Illustrated who is in Torino. He said that he got into a cab with three officials from the US speed skating team and asked them about the Shani-Chad feud. One of the officials said that it was all his fault, Shani did not want to skate in the team pursuit to begin with. He never said that he was going to do it. The official put his name on the lineup because he was hoping that Shani would change his mind. Shani did not back out of it, he wasn't supposed to do it in the first place.

[Jimbo S]

20. Both men behaved like asses at the press conference

I'm behind Shani regarding his decision relating to the team pursuit. Davis is no poster boy, but he has taken a lot of unneccessay heat. But I think he didn't have to tell Hedrick off like he did yesterday. Just keep his mouth shut and move on. Then Hedrick couldn't let it rest. And NBC for making this into a bigger story than it is.

On top of that, I've got personal issues with Joey Cheek. I don't care for him, either.

How I miss the days of Eric Heiden.

[jakefrep]

23. I wouldn't be entirely surprised...

...if both of them were generally pissed off at the media for ginning up the "controversy."

Joey Cheek zinged ESPN last night when asked about the conflict. He said something to the effect of "You guys are making this up." The ESPN guy nearly had a stroke.

[northzax]

21. you know, it's funny

when someone acts like it's not a big deal to lose, we complain. when they act like it is a big deal, we complain. we're really kinda pissy, aren't we? (and that's a BIG we, all of us)

they're both shmucks. Davis didn't tell his captain, Hendrick, that he wasn't racing in the pursuit? he had his coach tell him, that day? classy. And hedrick blew all the gold off his star by being so pissy about everything. a pox on both their houses.

[jakefrep]

24. I think it's pretty amusing...

..that we accuse athletes in INDIVIDUAL sports of being selfish.

[dr.zoidberg]

26. Yer damn right!

They are both assholes! Fuck'em both!

[dr.zoidberg]

25. These two "men" have acted like immature punks.

I've seen 16 year olds have more maturity than these two twits. Hedrick didn't have to complain about Shani not competing in the relays, after all this is done all the time in the Summer Olympics with no complaints. Now, Shani was stupid for not taking the high road. He would have presented himself better if he would not have said anything.

Maybe y'all haven't hear this, but the rest of the team thinks that BOTH of these guys are assholes of the highest degree.

"Bush's Boy"? Woop-de-shit, what does that have to do with the competition? Nothing that's what!