RICHMOND, British Columbia — The color of the medal mattered, not the color of his skin.
All Shani Davis was thinking about was gold.
With a furious kick on the final lap Wednesday, Davis stuck his skate across the line and won his second straight Olympic title in 1,000-meter speedskating, the first skater to win this event twice at the Winter Games.
“That race depleted me 100 percent,” he said. “I never want to leave anything on the track.”
No worries there.
The Americans broke their medal drought at the Richmond Olympic Oval with a flourish, claiming two spots on the podium. Chad Hedrick, who won three medals at the 2006 games, took a surprising bronze after struggling to regain his motivation in the wake of Italy.
“I had to dig down deep and find my passion for speedskating again,” the Texan said.
Davis dug deep on his final lap, knowing he needed a little more speed to catch South Korea’s Mo Tae-bum. The American world-record holder found just enough, posting a time of 1 minute, 8.94 seconds.
Mo, who won gold in the 500 two days ago, settled for silver this time, 18-hundreths behind Davis. Hedrick was next in 1:09.32.
Source: Huffington Post
