Shani Davis and gold

Today, I tried to figure out what the deal was with Shani Davis.

Last night, I saw him win gold at the 1000 meter speed skating event. And then I saw his immediate post race NBC interview in which he came across as rather unfriendly and bothered. Arguably, not good for his PR. At first, I thought he was just a sore winner with a chip on his shoulder. But then I figured something else was up and I needed to do the Google thing to find out.

At MSNBC.com, I found a short bio video about him and his Chicago roots. Here his personality came across as much more positive. I searched further. I read he was ridiculed by his peers, was shunned at the 2002 Olympic event by his teammates, had hate mail posted on his website, may have a control freak of a mommy, etc etc.

I spent a good hour reading as much about him as I could. And then slowly I saw the two heads of the coin and finally understood where Shani Davis was coming from and why he came to be the way he is today. Unfortunately, I also strongly felt the media fanning the flames of scalding opinion between him, his teammates, commentators, coaches and ultimately us his audience. Like the same way school kids would taunt others into a fight: "He said this, they said that about you. What're you gonna do about it?" and so forth.

I'd found numerous quotes from Davis, but for the moment, this seemed the most appropriate in response to all the latest hubbub: "It's my career. I don't care what anyone else thinks."

Interesting links:
1.Pic: American Shani Davis, left, is congratulated by the Netherlands' Erben Wennemars after winning the gold medal in the men's 1,000 speedskating final Saturday. Wennemars took the bronze.

2. Shani Davis' website.

3. Ridiculed: "Every once in a while, if it was cold out, I would wear a Bonnie Blair sweatshirt and everyone else would kind of make fun of it, because it was out of the norm," Davis, 23, says. "No one had ever seen a Bonnie Blair sweatshirt before, so they were like, 'Why are you wearing that white girl on your shirt, what's wrong with you?"

4. Bonnie Blair not allowed to comment on Davis: "I'm not allowed to talk about him," Blair said. "His mother sent me an e-mail and told me not to talk about him. So I can't talk about him."

5. Mommy's (Cherie's) tough love: In December, Cherie hurled rough words that seemed to hurt her son. USA Today located a Dutch TV documentary about Davis...that revealed tense scenes after Shani failed in a wild attempt to make the U.S. short-track team.
Cherie: "Someone's going to see what a loser you are."
Shani: "If you're going to be negative, get out of here. You think that makes me feel good, telling me I'm a loser?"
In another sequence, Cherie laughs and says, "I'm so sorry you let all those little kids beat you. Maybe you should retire." Says Shani: "I cannot wait until this season is over."