[videowaywire video_id=”28C4B47CF0370317″]
*Olympic gold-medal speedskater Shani Davis has called into question the sudden death coin-toss method of determining who carried the American flag during the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Games.
Luge veteran Erin Hamlin, competing in her final Olympics, was given the honor after a vote by some of her fellow athletes put her in position for the coin-toss decision.
Hamlin and Davis were among eight nominees for the flag-bearer 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 balloting that took place Wednesday night.
Eventually, the final vote was deadlocked at 4-4. Hamlin, who is white, won a coin toss, which was 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 in the event of a tie, the coin toss would take place.
Davis fired off a tweet that criticized the entire selection process. He said the process by which Hamlin won was executed “dishonorably” and included a reference to Black History Month — suggesting that race played a role in the decision.
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. #BlackHistoryMonth2018 #PyeongChang2018 pic.twitter.com/dsmTtNkhJs
— Shani Davis (@ShaniDavis) February 8, 2018
USA Luge declined to 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.
Davis is a five-time Olympian with two gold medals and two silver medals in his collection. Hamlin is a four-time Olympian, winner of a bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi Games, a two-time world champion and winner of 23 World Cup medals. Despite that résumé, Hamlin — who is retiring after the Olympics — never thought she would be the pick.
“To me, that always seems to be a really, really big-name person,” Hamlin said at the time.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
