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]