I am a bit behind in my traditional daily Olympic update posts, but I am going to catch-up with them today.
Those that know me, know that the Olympics are the best part of the sporting calendar to me, and as such, I am going to try to keep up the ambitious schedule of one recap post for each day, focusing on the most important story of the previous day, along with any other interesting or unusual stories. For day 1, that is pretty easy. And yes, day one was Wednesday, February 7 as there were two days of competition prior to the Opening Ceremonies. Also, PyeongChang is 14 hours ahead of me on Eastern Standard Time, so I will be using the days events on which I am able to view them, not necessarily the date the event occurred.
Pretty much only mixed doubles curling occurred on day 1, and as that tournament is a round-robin, nothing major occurred that would be super interesting. So, like Rio day 1, my story of the day is the announcement of the US Flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremonies.
The flag-bearer is: Erin Hamlin. Erin is a four-time Olympian luger, and she won the bronze medal in 2014 in Sochi, the first American medalist in the luge - ever. For her longevity and for being a past medalist, she is a more than worthy selection.
During Rio of 2016, I made a joke about Ryan Lochte not being selected as the US flag-bearer (of course he wouldn't). I determined at the instant I wrote my Day 1 report that I was going to make a Ryan Lochte joke every single entry. Of course, his antics halfway through the Olympics made some of those jokes write themselves. However, since he is a swimmer, he is not present in these Olympics, so it would seem really forced if I made a Ryan Lochte joke each day. But, being as prescient as I am, I feel that I know what is going to occur in these Olympics, so I am going to have an "American Disappointment of the Day" portion of each day.
Today's disappointment: Shani Davis.
Shani Davis is a long-track speed skater, who is participating in his 5th Olympics. He has 2 gold and 2 silver medals in his career, having won the 1000m golds in Vancouver and Turin and the silver in the 1500m in those same Olympics. Davis would have been an excellent choice to be a flag-bearer, and in fact when the total votes from the US delegation were tallied, Davis and Hamlin were tied. The USOC decided to flip a coin, and Hamlin was selected as the flag bearer.
Davis did not take kindly to this decision, and he tweeted: "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". Davis subsequently refused to participate in the Opening Ceremonies. So this is a double disappointment - Davis is disappointed that he was not named flag-bearer, and we are disappointed in his actions.
Events Watched: Curling
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