Skater Haters

TURIN, Italy (SNARKY) -- Those delicious spaghetti westerns have nothing on these Winter Olympics. Both come complete with white hats and black hats; good guys and bad guys.

For almost a week now, NBC has been concocting a rivalry between two U.S. speed skaters, Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick. Every interviewer has taken quotes out of context, the talking heads have lead with hyperbolic statements and the poor athletes themselves have been swept up in the moment.

Nevertheless, I must admit that this plot arc is pretty juicy, even for savvy media consumers, but we should know better by now.

First there was the team pursuit event in which Davis didn't partake in order to focus on his individual events later in the week, the events for which he came to Italy in the first place. Via the media, Hedrick assailed Davis' decision to decline the pursuit.

Hedrick went on to win gold in the men's 5000 meter and headlines splashed across the broadsheets read: Hedrick 1, Davis 0. This was getting personal.

Davis responded on Saturday with his own gold medal in the 1000 meter and in the process, knocked Hedrick from the podium. For those scoring at home (or even if you're alone): 1-1, a gold apiece.

The plot thickened again with Erin Andrews' infamous interview of Davis just after he won the gold. It's a case study in how to handle a hostile interviewee. But can one really blame Davis after all the rhetoric and vitriol during the build up to the race? I can't, choosing to remember that Davis is just a kid and NBC's minaret after all.

So Davis and Hedrick may not get along as teammates but that's hardly a rarity at these games and in the broader sports climate. Exhibit A: Terrell Owens.

Yes, good guys and bad guys; a black athlete and a white athlete. A tough, inner-city kid juxtaposed against the boy-next-door Texan -- racism, classism and the kitchen sink, too! Thank you, NBC, for such contrived and stereotypical characters.

This is all just the back story that brings us up to today's event at the Oval: the 1,500-meter skate. Davis is the short distance master pitted against Hedrick, the long distance specialist.

This is the showdown, a real shootout at the "Oval" corral. One man would be the victor and the other swallowed up in defeat. Protagonist set against his antagonist.

A funny thing happened on the way to Olympic victory for these two men. They (and us) became so consumed in one another that they failed to account for the rest of the competition. Italian Enrico Fabris will wear the weird CD-looking gold medal of the men's 1500-meter champion.

As an aside, Davis was second and Hedrick was third in the race but neither of those medals is likely to serve as consolation to these two athletes. As much as the media stressed their differences, Davis and Hedrick are the same in one regard: they both lost today.

# # #

Technorati: Winter Olympics, Shani Davis, Chad Hedrick, Lukateake