Speed racer
Speedskater Shani Davis excels in long and short track competitions, a unique combination that could ultimately lead to medals in both.
By DAVE SCHEIBER
Published August 10, 2005
Shani Davis has been in a hurry his whole life.
As a live-wire child from Chicago's South Side, he only wanted to go full-tilt at the local roller-skating rink, the place his single, working mom took him to share quality time and try to channel his energy.
But the skinny 5-year-old had no interest in learning the artful spins or Figure 8s she liked, only in racing rapidly around the rink and getting done quickly enough to play the arcade video games.
"So his coach said to me, "You're really wasting your money on this - Shani just wants to go fast,' " Cherie Davis recalls. "He said, "Maybe you should switch him to ice and let him try speedskating.' "
She did just that. And as a young teen living on the North Side, her son would outrun the gangs and bullies who chased and taunted him while he dashed home from school or off to practice at the Evanston Speed Skating Club. "I just looked at it as extra training," he says by phone recently with a laugh.
Today, at 22, Davis is still on the fast track - this time toward an Olympic-sized dream in two arenas.
After a phenomenal run the past two years - including a world record in the 1,500 meters, becoming the world record holder for all-around points and earning the honor of 2004 U.S. Speedskating athlete of the year - Davis is poised to make history.
When the Winter Olympics commence six months from now in Turin, Italy, Davis could be the first U.S. speedskater to qualify for both the long track and short track teams at the same Games.
And, if all goes as expected, he will achieve a social landmark as well: the first African-American to make the U.S. long track squad.
"My biggest goal is simply to get on the podium and hopefully stand the highest," he says. "I just want to be the best guy at what I do."
What he does, in fact, is remarkable.
"He's very, very good at short track, but he's dominant at long track," says Andy Gabel, president of U.S. Speedskating and four-time Olympic short track skater who won a relay silver at Lillehammer in 1994. "To do them individually in different years is hard. To do them both at the same time is unprecedented. He just has a huge heart for competing."
Davis excels at the highest level in two vastly different arenas: the long track on the 400-meter oval, where he races the clock with his long, powerful strides; and the short track on the 111-meter oval, where he's in a NASCAR-like scramble with other skaters, jostling, slipping through small openings despite towering over most short-trackers at 6 feet 2, trying not to wipe out with one careless move.
Both long and short track stage races at various distances, and it's likely that Davis will compete in four or five events in Italy if overlapping scheduling allows. Realistically, he could win a gold medal in long track in his best race, the 1,500; potentially a medal in short track where 2002 gold medalist Apolo Ohno and Rusty Smith remain the top Americans; and perhaps a few other long track events.
Come February, he could be a household name.
"To compete at the level he does in two different sports is amazing - let alone medal in two different sports in the same Olympics," says Fred Benjamin, a board member of U.S. Speedskating.
"I think it's as difficult as winning at the luge and then going over to the bobsled and competing for a medal. The training is different. The size of the rink is very different. They wear different boots, different blades. But Shani has what it takes to do both."
Benjamin, a Chicago attorney, played a small part in Davis' development. Cherie Davis was working as his legal secretary at the time the roller rink coach suggested her son move to the ice. She mentioned it to Benjamin, whose son was speed skating.
"I said, "What a coincidence!' and Mr. Benjamin gave me all the info I needed," Cherie says. "And here we are today."
Well, not quite. Several important steps occurred along the way that shaped Davis. First was the commitment his mother made. She would rush from work to get him to practices and spent much of her paycheck on young Shani's skating.
She also thought it made sense for her son to work not just on speed but endurance. So when he was 7, she would have him run a mile before school on the University of Chicago track near their home. She also enrolled him in the Evanston Speed Skating Club, run by Sanders Hicks.
"When I first saw Shani, I was struck by his determination," says Hicks, the first African-American fireman, captain and fire chief in Evanston. "I mean you could tell the fight in skaters when you see 'em, and he wanted to win."
Hicks put Davis in races against older kids, and Davis won. By 9, he was already ranked in the Top 10 against skaters 10 and 11 years-old. Three years later, he won the midget division long track nationals, and soon won the juvenile division short track nationals.
Hicks also pushed his standout pupil to run hills. "If I set a goal of 20 hills, he'd run 24," Hicks says. "Shani never complained. He worked hard and it really strengthened his stamina."
By seventh grade, Davis moved with his mother to the north side to be closer to the Evanston Club. He had to contend with schoolmates who idolized such Chicago icons as Michael Jordan and Walter Payton and ridiculed him about skating.
"Oh yeah, they'd call me a sissy because I wore tights and a lot of my friends teased me," he says. "But I didn't worry about what they thought of me."
Davis continued to blossom, meanwhile, and was aided by the support of another Chicago skate coach Dick Berg. "He was so efficient," Berg says. "And he was the kind of kid who if you told him he couldn't do something, he would go out and do it."
Davis made the Olympic short track team as an alternate in 2002 when he beat his good friend Ohno and Smith, who had already qualified, in the final round. That allowed him to knock Tommy O'Hare off the squad, triggering charges of conspiracy against Ohno and Smith by O'Hare. The matter was messy but eventually faded. "It was rough because I went from being cheered to being the guy who didn't belong," Davis says. "It really upset me."
Davis didn't compete, but used the experience to learn more about racing. He began spending most of the year in Calgary, working with coaches who improved his technique and tailored his workouts to a tall skater - a disadvantage in short track due to a higher center of gravity and the tighter turns.
Ultimately, his long and short experience has had a complementary effect. The long track training gives him an edge in endurance in short track events. Conversely, the harrowing short-track turns makes the long-track turns seem like a piece of cake, helping him gain valuable time on competitors.
Davis is attending the Olympic Education Center college and training program at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich. He's majoring in microeconomics while doing short-track work, preparing for the Olympic trials in December.
But not everything is rosy. Davis and his mother, who also serves as his manager, are in a heated dispute with U.S. Speedskating these days.
It involves sponsorships. Davis signed a personal long-track endorsement deal with a European bank, wearing the logo on a leg of his suit. U.S. Speedskating later signed its own deal with another sponsor and informed Davis he had to display that logo on his leg - stressing that he and others had signed an athlete agreement reserving the spot for any sponsor the association might land.
Davis and his mother stood by their deal - and logo placement. So some six months ago, U.S. Speedskating terminated his athlete agreement, worth thousands of dollars in financial support.
How the strained situation plays out remains to be seen. But it doesn't affect Davis' membership on the U.S. team or his ability to qualify for Turin, where he could raise speedskating's profile and his own as a role model for African-American youth.
"I don't want to get caught up in being too glorious over my accomplishments," he says. "That's one of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make. But if the things I do help motivate people to try something different - black kids or any kids, no matter their color - then that's great."
So Davis hurries on, history awaiting on the ice.