Speedskating: Davis breaks silence, looks ahead

KEARNS — Shani Davis has been avoiding the media after calling comedian and U.S. Speedskating team sponsor Stephen Colbert a "jerk" a few weeks ago. But after his second win of the Essent ISU World Cup at the Utah Olympic Oval Sunday, the most high-profile U.S. long track athlete finally gave reporters some time — and some insight into his impressive performances.

Davis has yet to explain why he was critical of Colbert, who has satirically railed on the Canadians for the lack of training time given to the U.S. on the Olympic Oval, but he was willing to discuss his recent success, which included a world record in the 1,500-meters and a win in Sunday's 1,000-meter event.

He is also qualified to represent the U.S. in at least five races, should he choose to do so.

"I am really excited," Davis said Sunday afternoon. "I've been skating really good and hopefully I can just continue to get stronger."

Davis attributes some of his dominance to his physical maturity.

"I think I just got older and stronger," he said with a grin. "I have that old man strength kicking in. I think I'm just hitting my physical peak as a male."

Davis won't decide until the Dec. 24 deadline exactly which races he'll compete in. For sure, he said, he will skate the 1,500 (in which he set a new world record) and the 1,000-meter races.

"Those are my two favorite races," he said. "We'll see what happens. I'm just really excited."

One thing that's almost certain, Davis said he doesn't want Chad Hedrick's spot in the 10,000-meter race, should his teammate opt out of it.

"I just have no ambition to do it," he said shaking his head. "I'm a middle distance guy."

In fact, Davis trains with the U.S. short track speed skaters for a couple of months each year.

"It's refreshing," he said. "It's not as repetitive. I like the thrills and spills; it's just a lot of excitement."

Davis even picks up some coaching tips from those helping short track skaters.

"It's not a conflict of interest because I don't directly compete with any of those skaters," he said. "For some reason, training with them, it seems to work for me."

"I've never been in the kind of shape I'm in," he said. And as for whether the slower ice will favor a different type of skater, he shakes his head in disagreement.