D'Amato: With nothing left to prove, Olympic champion Shani Davis still finds joy in skating
KEARNS, Utah – Shani Davis doesn’t have a thing left to prove in speedskating.
He’s a two-time Olympic champion and the all-time World Cup points leader with 58 victories. He won world allround titles in 2005 and ’06 and, just because he could, won the world sprint title in 2009.
He’s arguably the best middle-distance skater in history. If there were a Mount Rushmore of U.S. long-track speedskaters, he would be on it along with Eric Heiden, Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen.
At 35, Davis is trying to make another Olympic team. He’s not as fast as he once was, but one thing that hasn’t diminished is his passion for the sport.
A decade of dominance, of Davis being practically unbeatable in the 1,000 meters, has passed. Even so, he still loves the challenge of getting every last bit out of himself, whether he’s training or racing.
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“My spirit is still young and I’m young at heart but I just don’t recover the same,” he said. “But I still love the sport of speedskating and I always find a challenge in competing and trying to be the best I can be.
“As long as I have that in me, age doesn’t mean a thing.”
On Sunday, the final day of the last pre-Olympics World Cup before the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, Davis finished 12th in the 1,000 at the Utah Olympic Oval. His time of 1 minute 7.67 seconds was far off his world record of 1:06.42.
Still, for Davis, a cerebral skater who has always been among the best in the world at breaking down his races and making tiny fixes in his technique, there were reasons to be encouraged.
“That was huge because the lap speed was great,” he said. “Just the opener (the first 200 meters) was bad. I have all the pieces. It’s just that I need to put them together at the right time.”
No matter what he does before he hangs up his skates, Davis’ legacy is secure. He was the U.S. standard-bearer through three Olympic cycles and influenced a generation of young skaters.
“I looked up to Shani when I was little,” said Brian Hansen, a 2014 Olympian trying to make his second U.S. team. “When I was at the club level Shani was making his World Cup debut. Being able to skate with him and compete with him has been really meaningful for me because he was such a skating idol to me growing up.”
At the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Chris Witty was written off after a poor World Cup season during which she was stricken with mononucleosis. The night before the Olympic 1,000 meters, I waited for her in the bowels of the Olympic Oval; she was the last U.S. skater to leave the facility after a final workout.
Something in her demeanor, in the way she answered my questions, told me she was going to have a good race the next day and she did, setting a world record en route to winning the gold medal.
Davis probably is considered a long shot to reach the podium in Pyeongchang. But I wouldn’t count him out.
“I just want to get back there and give it one more try,” he said. “There’s nothing like the Olympic experience, competing for your country, trying to go out there and do your best and bring something home. That’s what it’s about for me now.”