U.S. speedskating star holds off judgment on teammate's choices

Enough, already: Hedrick tired of Davis talk

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Chad Hedrick reacts after the United States was eliminated from medal contention during quarterfinals action in the men's team pursuit speedskating event.

TURIN, Italy - Chad Hedrick says he’s tired of talking about Shani Davis.

Then again, it sure didn’t take much to get the Texan worked up — just a few more questions about Davis’ decision to skip the team pursuit.

“This Shani thing is really getting on my nerves right now because I’m the one with the gold medal and we’re sitting here talking about him not practicing with us and not doing this and not doing that,” said Hedrick, who started his Olympics with a dominating victory in the 5,000 meters and still has three more races to go.

Davis, who holds the world record in the 1,000, wouldn’t take part in team pursuit because he felt it would hurt preparations for his signature event. Without him, the U.S. was defeated by Italy in the quarterfinals Wednesday, denying Hedrick a chance to duplicate Eric Heiden’s record of five golds.

Hedrick was back at the oval Thursday, practicing his starts for the upcoming 1,000 and insisting that he’s more concerned with the four golds he can still win rather than the one that got away.

“We should be talking about other people,” Hedrick said, mentioning U.S. teammate and 500 gold medalist Joey Cheek. “We should be talking about Joey and I, because we’ve already been standing up there on the podium.”

And that’s where Davis hopes to be come Saturday.

He’ll be one of the favorites in the 1,000, but must contend with a loaded field that includes teammates Cheek, Hedrick and Casey FitzRandolph — gold medalists all — and strong international rivals like Jan Bos of the Netherlands, who won silver at the last two Olympics.

The 1,000 is clearly the weakest of Hedrick’s four individual events. He’s raced the distance only six times and tends to be slow getting off the line — a problem he focused on during the workout, the clicks of his skates pounding into the ice as he tried to improve his time over the first half-lap.

At longer distances, Hedrick can get away with starting a bit slower than everyone else. At 1,000, there’s not as much time to make up the gap.

“It’s sort of like Roy Jones going up to heavyweight,” he said. “I’m very inexperienced in this race. At the worst, this is going to be a good preparation for me to build my speed up to get it going for the 1,500.”

Davis trains separately from much of the U.S. team, a choice that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Hedrick.

“He doesn’t spend much time with us, I can put it that way,” Hedrick said. “Everybody has their own deal. I’m not going to say whether it’s right or wrong.”

Cheek said he’s surprised that so many people — mostly the media — are calling out Davis for failing to join the pursuit team.

The 500 gold medalist noted that Davis has never skated the event. Also, Davis had an especially busy schedule this season as he tried to become the first American to qualify for both the long and short track teams (he failed in short track). He really didn’t have time to work on the pursuit, which requires precise coordination among three skaters.

“You really have to try and make the decision that you think is best for you,” Cheek said.

In the team pursuit, Hedrick went fast enough to beat the Italians on his own, but the time is determined by the last of three skaters to cross the line. KC Boutiette fell off the pace at the end of the race, costing the Americans a chance to advance.

As it was, the U.S. time was still the second-fastest of the quarterfinals — beaten only by the Italians. Imagine how fast the Americans could have gone with Davis.

“He would have been a great part of the team,” Cheek said. “If you look at the times those guys skated, he would have probably been a deciding factor there. (But) I don’t fault him for it.”

Davis rarely speaks between races, and his agent and mother didn’t immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment. But he addressed the issue of team pursuit last weekend after finishing seventh in the 5,000.

“I could care less what other people say about me,” he said. “I didn’t come here to skate the team pursuit.”

Davis also said he didn’t want to take away a chance for two of his teammates to skate the pursuit, which made its Olympic debut in Turin. Charles Ryan Leveille and Clay Mull failed to qualify for any individual events but were added to the roster specifically for the team race.

“We’ve got skaters who are just here for the pursuit,” Davis said. “It wouldn’t be fair to them to take away their Olympic dreams.”

Hedrick never considered skipping the team pursuit, even though he had four individual races ranging from the 1,000 to the 10,000.

“Every chance I get to step to the line and represent my country, I’m going to do it,” Hedrick said. “I don’t care if I have a race two days later, three days later ... this isn’t a personal issue. I’m not going to be selfish to my teammates.”

Does he think Davis was selfish?

“He’s doing what he has to do,” Hedrick told a small group of reporters. “You guys can determine if he’s being selfish or not.”

Actually, Hedrick would prefer that everyone move on. The chance to win five gold medals is gone. But four sounds like a pretty good number, too.

“I’m part of the team. I want to influence the team in a positive way, so the other skaters can do well also,” he said.

“This is putting a bad vibe on everything.”

The Associated Press