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SHANI DAVIS: The Winning Streak
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Sport | Speed Skating |
Birthdate | August 13, 1982 | |
Birthplace | Chicago, IL | |
Hometown | Chicago, IL | |
Residence | Alberta, Calgary | |
HT./WT. | 6'2" | |
Olympics | 2002 |
Shani Davis of Chicago won speed skating's 2005 world allround title.
Shani Davis was
only 20 years old when he became the first African American to make
it into the U.S. Men's Olympic short track team, although he wasn't
able to participate in the games in Salt Lake. Davis revealed he wasn't
physically prepared at that time to take on the challenge of competing
for the Olympics. But in 2004 he was able to bounce back into the track
when he won first at the Men's 1500m at the World Single Distance Championships
and taking second behind his teammate, Chad Hedrick, at the World Allround
Championships. In 2005, he set a world record in becoming the first
African American to win the World Allround title in the Men's 1500m,
and taking home the silver in both 1000m events at the World Sprint
Championships. However, Davis chose not to defend his World Single Distance
title in 2005, but rather went on to compete at the World Short Track
Championships where he won a bronze in the Men's Relay for the U.S.
team.
Too Dangerous for the Rink
Davis grew up in
Chicago in a predominantly black neighborhood near Hyde Park. He went
to an all-Black school and during an interview he said it was highly
unlikely that he'd become interested in speed skating as a sport. But
he did admit a love for skating when he was a child.
He was only 2 1/2
when his mother, Cherie, began bringing him to the old Rainbow Roller
Rink to keep his active behavior in check. Shani loved going really,
really fast on skates. The reason for his speeding on the rink was that
his mom used to promise him he could play video games if he skated.
He never really cared about doing the dancing that his mom wanted him
to do. The guards at the rink used to say, "Man, that kid's dangerous!
Get him outta here!" They were concerned he'd hurt someone or himself
eventually. And then someone recommended speed skating when Davis was
three or four years old.
Source:
NBCOlympics.com - Athletes - Shani Davis
Early Start
His speed skating
training did not begin until Davis was 6 years old. Back then his mom,
Cherie, was working as a legal assistant at Benjamin and Shapiro for
long-time speed skating official, Fred Benjamin, whose son was an Olympic
hopeful and who also recommended speed skating for the precocious six-year-old
Shani Davis.
So Shani's mom
enrolled him into skating lessons at the Evanston Speed Skating Club,
where he trained under an African American teacher and he skated with
a diverse group of students. It wasn't until Davis moved to Lake Placid
at 16 to train in the development program that he felt like a minority
in his sport.
"That was
the biggest culture shock of my life, going to Lake Placid," Shani
was quoted as saying. "I was used to living around a lot of diversity
and having a big black community in Chicago and Milwaukee."
Cherie Davis made
sure the color of Shani's skin didn't prohibit his enjoyment of the
sport.
"I didn't
teach that since you're black you have to act nice and pretend like
you're a fly on the wall. I didn't do that," Cherie Davis said.
"I told him, you have just as much fun as everybody else, and he
did."
Source:
By Mary Motzko,
NBCOlympics.com
Lonely Years
Shani recalled the ribbing hed get from friends because
of his sport. They didnt understand why hed choose to idolize speed skating
champion, Bonnie Blair, over the basketball icon, Michael Jordan.
He used to wear this white Bonne Blair sweatshirt when its cold,
and his friends would ask him, What you doing with that white girls face on your shirt, man?
The guys though speed skating was a sissy sport, so Shani didnt talk much about what he did then.
Source:
Read NBC Online article on Shani Davis - Davis Bio at NBC Olympics

Olympic Dreams
It was at Lake
Placid that Shani Davis made it his goal to make it in the Olympic team
someday. Eventually he left Lake Placid after a year, and then he moved
to Marquette, Michigan for more development programs.� In 1999,
he became the first skater to make it into the U.S. short track and
long track Junior World Championship teams, a feat which Davis also
accomplished in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In 2004 and 2005 he made the Senior-Level
U.S. short track and long track World Championship teams.
Because there isn't
a long track at the Colorado Springs training grounds for the US short
track team, Shani Davis was unable to train well, so he moved again
in 2001 to Calgary, Canada, where he skated under the tutelage of former
world champion Derrick Campbell.
What's in a name?
Davis' father, Reginald Shuck, chose his son's name from a Swahili dictionary. The skater says his name means a combination of "light" and "weight."
Historical achievement
Recently, Shani
Davis has earned a silver 2004) and a gold (2005) at Speed Skating World
Allround Championships and also has been setting a world record in the
long-track 1500m.
At the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics, Shani Davis is making history by becoming the first African-American to make the U.S. Olympic speed skating team.
As the world-record
holder in the 1000m, he made history again when he won the event on
Day 8 to capture his first Olympic medal and become the first African-American
man to capture an individual gold at the Winter Olympic Games. He topped
his countryman Joey Cheek and the Dutchman Erben Wennemars for the win.
Shani Davis also earned a second medal, silver, after finishing behind
Italy's Enrico Fabris in the men's 1500m on Day 11.
Diversity at Torino
Shani Davis, Vonetta
Flowers, Jean Prahm, Apolo Ohno, and others are leading a most diverse
pool of athletic talent the US team ever assembled for the 2006 Winter
Olympics at Turin, Italy. Incidentally, this diversity has drawn many
reactions from various commentators.
In an article entitled Olympic talent is color blind
which served as a response to a comment by HBO Real Sports
commentator, Bryant Gumbel, NBC news correspondent Kevin Coke rebuked the formers
insinuation that being Black automatically presupposes excellence in the athletic field.
This seems like a reverse discrimination wherein the color of ones skin could put an athlete
into a category of either best or mediocre. To Kevins point of view, it is time that we
all should move beyond the idea that color has something to do with talent.
Other Resources:
NBCOlympics.com Videos at www.nbcolympics.com
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