U.S. skater Shani Davis did not march with Team U.S.A. during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics at PyeongChang, South Korea, after raising a stink because he wasn’t chosen to be the U.S. flag bearer.
According to USA Today, Davis had quietly let it be known that he would skip the ceremony.
“Multiple people told USA TODAY Sports that as of Friday morning, Davis did not intend to participate in the ceremony in accordance with his original plans,” the paper reported Friday. “Had he been named flag bearer, the people confirmed, he would have accepted the honor and taken part.”
Davis, a medal-winning African American speed skater, was angry about the results of a coin toss that was used to decide whether he or a white female athlete, would represent the U.S. in the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics this week.
The angry skater slammed the choice of U.S. Luger Erin Hamlin to carry Old Glory in a Thursday tweet, where he insisted that the coin toss method was “dishonorable:”
https://twitter.com/ShaniDavis/status/961534274586464256
Davis also injected race into the coin toss discussion, by including #BlackHistoryMonth2018 in his tweet.
The paper also noted that Davis might also have decided he just didn’t have enough time to participate in the ceremony because his skating practice session ends only a short time before the ceremony.
Yet, despite having hectic training schedules of their own, nearly the entire Team U.S.A. contingent was able to attend the opening ceremony.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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