Davis’ tweet rips US flagbearer selection
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — It was a feel-good story for a few hours: Luge veteran Erin Hamlin gets the chance to enter her last Olympics carrying the U.S. flag into the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Games, winning that distinction after a vote by some of her fellow athletes.
And then Shani Davis tweeted.
With that, the entire process was called into controversy. The tweet posted to Davis’ account said the process by which Hamlin won was executed “dishonorably,” and included a reference to Black History Month — raising the question of whether the speedskater was suggesting that race played a role in the decision.
Davis is black, Hamlin is white.
“We feel strongly toward Shani and they felt strongly for Erin,” U.S. speedskater Joey Mantia said. “That’s just that.”
Hamlin and Davis were among eight nominees for the flagbearer role, and athletes from each of the eight winter sports federations — bobsled and skeleton, ski and snowboarding, figure skating, curling, biathlon, hockey, speedskating and luge — represented those nominees in a balloting that took place Wednesday night.
Eventually, the final vote was deadlocked at 4-4. Hamlin won a coin toss, the predetermined method of picking a winner if all else failed in the athlete-led process. The U.S. Olympic Committee confirmed the tie, and that voters knew if the tie couldn’t be broken by them the coin toss would have to occur.
USA Luge declined comment on the tweet. Calls placed to Davis’ phone rang unanswered, and his agent Ian Baranski did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Hours before the tweet was posted, Hamlin was beaming about the opportunity. The four-time Olympian told the story about how her parents, Ron and Eileen Hamlin, always wrestle with the decision about whether to spend the money for high-priced tickets to the opening ceremony — and in the end, always go to see their daughter march into the stadium with her U.S. teammates.
“I think they’re going to be really glad that they made that decision,” Hamlin said. “They’re really pumped. I’m sure my brothers will be. We’ve grown up watching the Olympics and we’re always like, `Who’s going to be carrying the flag?’ And to actually be that person is insane.”
Davis was certainly a worthy candidate. He’s now a five-time Olympian, with two gold medals and two silver medals in his collection. It could not be determined if Davis posted the tweet himself, or if anyone else with access to his account may have.
Davis’ mother, Cherie Davis, said she was unaware of the tweet until an AP reporter spoke to her by phone.
“I know something about a coin toss, he told me last night,” she said Thursday. “I don’t know anything else.”
45 Russians’ appeals denied by court
Sports’ highest court rejected appeals by all 45 Russian athletes plus two coaches who were banned from the Pyeongchang Olympics over doping concerns in a decision announced Friday less than nine hours before the opening ceremony.
The International Olympic Committee had refused to invite the group of Russians, saying it had evidence of alleged doping in Russian sports.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IOC has the right to set its own standards for who is eligible.
CAS Secretary General Matthieu Reeb, reading from a statement and declining to take questions, said the IOC process “could not be described as a sanction but rather as an eligibility decision.”
“No finding that this was carried out in a discriminatory, arbitrary or unfair manner,” he said.
A vetting process was designed to exclude Russian athletes from the Games if IOC officials weren’t sure they were clean, even if they hadn’t been banned for doping.
The IOC has invited 168 Russians to participate as “Olympic Athletes from Russia,” competing in neutral uniforms under the Olympic flag.