<![CDATA[Deadspin: shani davis]]> http://tags.deadspin.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/deadspin.com.png <![CDATA[Deadspin: shani davis]]> http://deadspin.com/tag/shanidavis http://deadspin.com/tag/shanidavis <![CDATA[Yeah, Your Mother. Seriously, Your Mother]]> We do love a good athlete-journalist feud — considering it's rare that either species acknowledges the other as an actual human being enough to hate them — but there's something special about the bizarre "fight" between Chicago Tribune writer Eric Zorn and Chicago-born speedskater Shani Davis.

Zorn, back in February, chided Davis for being such, well, a weirdo during the Olympic Games, and a "writer" at Davis' Web site wrote an "editorial" that called Zorn a Nazi. (The "editorial" is the attached picture.)

More went on after this, but our favorite part of this story is that apparently someone claiming to be Davis' mother actually contacted Zorn's mom to make sure she saw the "editorial."

This is, of course, out of hand, an invasion of privacy, all that. But we still think it's kind of a brilliant idea. You're really not curious to see if Jay Mariotti was actually born of an earthly woman? What in the world is/was Skip Bayless' mom like?

Classy Local Speedskater Shani Davis Responds To Criticism [Chicago Tribune]

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<![CDATA[Shani Davis Twists The Knife]]> shanidavis2.jpgAs the late games tip off, let me step in for a second and divert your attention to speed skating. Shani Davis, at the ISU world all-around speedskating championships, set a new world record in the mens 1500m. The previous record holder? A guy named Chad Hedrick.

You may remember their vicious speedskating beef from the Torino 2006 games. Even 50 Cent and Ja Rule were stepping in to tell them, "Hey, calm down, this is getting serious." Anyway, I suppose this gives Shani Davis the last laugh.

Anyway, in basketball, the late games are just underway, with Georgetown opening up a quick 8-point lead on Ohio State, and Texas leading N.C. State by 3 early in the going. 'Zona and 'Nova have yet to get underway.

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<![CDATA[Shani Davis Is Huge in Holland]]> Nearly lost in the hullaballoo (I've never used that word before, and I have no idea why I'm starting now) of the Chad Hedrick/Shani Davis post-race news conference yesterday, is the fact that members of the Dutch curling team showed up for the sole purpose of heckling Chad Hedrick. In turn, I suppose that probably makes Chad Hedrick a dutch hater. Izhn't that veird? Regardless of whose side you're taking in the Hedrick/Davis feud, I think you'd have to agree: When the Dutch curling team shows up to heckle someone, it is awesome.

From what I can gather here, Davis's mom made friends with a few of the Dutch curlers after she was kicked out of a post-race news conference a few days ago. And yesterday, Dutch curlers in tow, Cherie Davis came to the press conference wearing bright orange Holland gear.

Evidently, Davis is more popular in Holland than he is here, which makes sense, because until a few days ago, no one in America had any idea that Shani Davis existed. I guess they take their speedskating a little more seriously in Holland. And it's easy to see why they would be so quick to admire his speed and grace on the ice, as many of them find it difficult to accomplish such feats while wearing their wooden ice skates.

Feud? What feud? It's a circus on ice [Chicago Tribune]
Memorable Quotes from Austin Powers in Goldmember [imdb.com]

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<![CDATA[Speedskating Beef]]> The issues between U.S. speedskaters Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis continue to garner attention. I mentioned it briefly yesterday, but the story's picking up a little steam, and hopefully has the potential to develop into a Harding/Kerrigan situation. If things continue on this path, one is going to the attack the other with a rusty skate blade and then release a sex tape co-starring Jeff Gillooly.

Just to recap briefly, Hedrick's mad because Davis skipped out on a three-man event and likely cost Hedrick and his lesser teammates a medal. Hedrick was going for five golds in one Olympic games, and that event was to be one of them. Davis skipped out on the race, citing that he wanted to focus solely on the 1000m event and that he didn't want to take a chance to participate in the Olympics away from another skater.

Hedrick has done everything but call Davis a selfish prick, and he's apparently not alone in this belief. Even Dan Jansen and Eric Heiden seem to not like him. Myself, I've never really viewed the Olympics as really team-oriented. Where should one's loyalty ultimately lie? To increasing the United States total medal count? To his fellow American speedskaters? To his own individual accomplishments? I don't have a good answer for that one.

I just have to wonder if Hedrick is really upset because Davis let Team America down, or because he cost Hedrick a shot at his five medals. I'm not sure who, if anyone, is acting selfish here. But on Tuesday, they go head-to-head again in the 1500m, an event in which Hedrick holds the world record. I'm excited about reading about it on the internet at about noon, and then ignoring it later that night on television.

Putting the 'fun' in dysfunction [Yahoo! Sports]

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