American Skater Shani Davis Faces Backlash for Olympic Opening Ceremony Boycott

Team USA speedskater Shani Davis opted out of the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in [...]

By Libby Birk

Team USA speedskater Shani Davis opted out of the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Pyeongchang, South Korea after losing the coin toss for flag bearer.

A day earlier, Davis vented his frustration over a coin flip ruining his opportunity to carry the American flag during the Parade of Nations event. He took to Twitter to blast Team USA's tie-breaker rule.

"I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event. @TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022," he wrote on Thursday.

Davis' comments incited backlash on social media.

One person wrote that they were glad luge athlete Erin Hamlin, who tied Davis 4-4 in the initial team vote, won the coin toss to carry the American flag Friday.

"This tweet sums up why I'm glad you didn't get to carry our great flag. Congrats to Erin who will represent our country with honor," they wrote.

Another person wrote that the coin "made the right choice."

"Sounds like sour grapes to me. If it were up to me, you'd never be up for this honor in the future," one person replied, adding the hashtag #NotWorthy.

Another person defended Davis' statement, writing that although everyone may not agree with it, we still should respect it.

"Dude, are you serious? Comments like that says a lot about you. You don't have to agree with his statement but respect it," he said.

Someone else dissected Davis' argument and said that the person's accomplishments should be weighed more than their race, after Davis implied he should have carried the flag during Black History Month.

"Shani, you're one hell of an athlete and more than qualified to be the flag bearer. It wasn't right to be narrowed to a coin toss," the person wrote. "It equally wasn't right to reference black history month reference in your retort. Only a person's accomplishments, not race, should be emphasized."

While Davis didn't explicitly say he skipped the event due to the coin toss, many fans took his implication on Twitter as confirmation. However, another speedskater, Brian Hensen, chose to skip the parade to rest his legs ahead of competition.

"Opening Ceremony is one of my favorite days from the past two Olympic Games I've competed in, but at the same time, you know, I remember the next day, my legs were just a little stiff, my lower back was a little sore, so, you know, I think I might skip it this time around," Hansen told NBC 5.

He later wrote on Instagram that he was "super excited to watch @teamusa walk in!"

Despite the controversy surrounded Davis' statement, Speedskating officials told NBC News that he never intended to walk in the parade to begin with.

A spokesman for US Speedskating said attending the ceremony would have altered Davis' training program, but he had reconsidered going to the event after learning he was nominated as a potential flag bearer.

Hamlin and Davis were among eight nominees for the flagbearer role, and athletes from each of the eight winter sports federations represented those nominees in a balloting that took place Wednesday night.

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