Heard about this earlier today on NBC Sports while I was watching the Skating and Gymnastics Spectacular (the one good thing about feeling under the weather is you can lounge around all day watching TV)---Congrats to Shani for winning the Championship!
Davis wins overall title at sprint speedskating worldsMOSCOW (AP) — Shani Davis of the United States set a track record to win the 1,000-meters and earn the overall title at the sprint speedskating world championships.
Wang Beixing of China won her first overall sprint title.
Davis won in 1 minute, 8.66 seconds, with Denny Morrison of Canada in second Yevgeny Lalenkov of Russia in third. Defending champion and overnight leader Lee Kyou-hyuk of South Korea fell with 100 meters left.
The titles were decided by two 500-meter and two 1,000-meter races over the weekend.
"I knew after yesterday, I had a lot of work to do," said Davis, who was fourth in the overall standings after two races Saturday. "But I stayed positive and every race I just approached like it was my last race."
Keiichiro Nagashima of Japan won the 500 in a track-record 34.91 seconds, while Davis was sixth.
Wang had a 0.43-seconds advantage over defending champion Jenny Wolf before the 500. Wolf won the race in a track-record 37.86 seconds, but only 0.05 ahead of Wang.
www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-01-18-speedskating-davis_N.htm_______________________________________________
Also posting an article I came across that is from December...
Trying to make the turn
Davis' reputation "important" as 2010 Olympics approachBy Gary D’Amato of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Dec. 31, 2008
www.jsonline.com/sports/etc/36959739.htmlWith two world championships, a pair of Olympic medals and a host of World Cup victories and rink records, Shani Davis has proved he's one of the best allround speedskaters in the world.
Now, he wants to show the world he's an all-around good guy, too.
Davis should have been one of the U.S. Olympic team's shining stars at the 2006 Turin Games, where he won gold in the 1,000 meters and silver in the 1,500. As the first African-American to medal in long-track speedskating, he should have been celebrated for his achievements.
Instead, Davis is perhaps best remembered for verbally sparring with U.S. teammate Chad Hedrick, for being sullen and testy with the media and for an awkward nationally televised interview on NBC.
With the 2010 Vancouver Games fast approaching, Davis is cognizant of his image and wants to leave a better impression this time around.
"It's important for me," said Davis, a Chicago native who lives in Milwaukee and trains at the Pettit National Ice Center. "At the end of the day, people remember you by your Olympic performances. This is my third Olympics. I really want to make a long-lasting good impression.
"You only live life once and I don't want to be remembered as a guy that someone really didn't get a chance to know. I want to make sure that people understand me and know who I am, not only what I can do on the ice but as a person. It's important to me."
Anyone who has watched Davis at the rink over the years knows he's friendly and charming with fans, especially children. Though he doesn't train with the national team in Salt Lake City, he's genuinely admired by many skaters and respected by all.
Spend 10 minutes talking to him and you'll be impressed, not only with his passion for speedskating but with his ability to see the bigger picture. Having competed internationally for years, Davis is bright and savvy and worldly wise.
He's an intense competitor, but off the ice, he's easygoing, fun-loving and quick to smile.
So what happened in 2006?
Some of his problems were of his own doing, but in fairness, some things were blown out of proportion by a media contingent looking for a "controversial story" in the absence of figure-skating judging scandals or hockey teams trashing hotels.
Davis went into the Turin Games as something of a pariah within US Speedskating because of disagreements with the national governing body over issues such as sponsorship and the use of his image. Privately, some of the organization's top officials did not speak highly of their best skater. Publicly, they bit their lips because they knew Davis would deliver Olympic medals.
Then, in Turin, he declined US Speedskating's request for him to skate in the team pursuit, a new Olympic event.
Davis had valid reasons. He had trained for his individual races his entire life and the team pursuit was thrown at him at the 11th hour. He was concerned that adding another race, one for which he had not prepared, would hurt his overall performance.
When Hedrick said in news conferences that he was honored to be asked to skate the team pursuit and considered it his patriotic duty, he subtly painted Davis as unpatriotic.
Their war of words escalated throughout the Games, as reporters who wouldn't know a clap skate from a figure skate ran back and forth between the athletes and asked them to respond to each other's comments.
Hedrick was portrayed as the hero, even though he had an ulterior motive for wanting Davis to skate in the team pursuit: He knew the U.S. could not win a medal without Davis, and he had talked before the Olympics about trying to match Eric Heiden's five-medal performance in 1980.
Meanwhile, a defiant Davis walked out of one post-race news conference, and his NBC interview was almost painful to watch.
"That's all behind us now," Davis said. "I'm trying to move forward. As human beings, we do the best we can."
Though Davis and Hedrick could not be called friends, they are cordial and respectful of each other's talents. At the U.S. Long-Track Speedskating Championships last week, Hedrick even broached the subject of training with Davis in preparation for the 2010 Olympics.
Davis declined, saying it would be too difficult because the skaters compete in the same races.
"If he skated strictly the 5,000 and 10,000 and I skated the 1,500 and 1,000, then sure," Davis said. "But he crosses over into my realm."
Asked if he was happier now than he was two years ago, Davis said, "I think I am. I'm more excited. I try not to be negative. I don't want things that are negative to make me unhappy."
He said he was eager to show the world his true personality in Vancouver.
"If it's meant to be, it's meant to be," he said. "If not, that's OK. I can live with it either way, but I'll be a lot happier at the end of the day, when I rest my head at night, knowing people got to know me for who I am."
