Pair has sharp skates, even sharper tongues

TURIN -- They sat there for a good half-hour telling their sides of the story. The summation would be something like this: We're just competitors, and as for the rest of the stuff, we'll just agree to disagree, except about the media, of course. You know how the dastardly media does like to stir that pot.

It was almost a clean getaway.

But something was stirring deep inside Shani Davis, because as the news conference was drawing to a close, he leaned in to the microphone and delivered a little farewell statement.

''I'm not a phony person," he said. ''I'm not a Hollywood actor -- nothing against Chad [only moments after Chad Hedrick had mentioned that perhaps acting was in his immediate future]. But it would have been nice if after [I won] the 1,000 -- and I'm just throwing it out there -- if he would have been a good teammate and shaken my hand. I hugged him after he won the 5,000."

And then he left the room.

There was a moment of silenzio as the men and women of the media took a collective deep breath.

Did we just hear what we thought we heard?

All eyes drifted to Hedrick. I don't know what the Italians would call what Davis had just done, but in the good ol' US of A, we would say that Hedrick had just been sandbagged.

Well, Chad?

Hedrick couldn't speak for about 10 seconds. Finally, he came up with this: ''We're all part of Team USA. I went to the opening ceremonies because I thought it was important [apparently, Davis didn't]. I felt we had the opportunity to win the team pursuit, but he chose not to participate and did not even discuss it with me as a team leader. We had a good chance to win a medal, and I just felt betrayed in a way."

After all the verbal jousting, not to mention the hour and a half that had preceded it, it was difficult to remember the reason we had gathered at the Oval Longotto yesterday. It was the men's 1,500-meter speedskating event, and it was won by neither Davis, who finished second, nor Hedrick, who finished third. It was won by 24-year-old Italian Enrico Fabris. But we, the dastardly American media, had our story. Shani had beaten Chad. What else did we need to know? And wasn't it cute that an Italian had won the race before his home fans (even if 75 percent of the patrons were wearing Dutch orange)?

OK, so now we know. They hate each other. Another thing we know is that Davis sure has a way with an exit line.

So?

So it's like this: With all the celebrated flops elsewhere, speedskating has become the big American story of these Olympics. First of all, we're good. The men have picked up six medals thus far, with a very good chance for at least one more in Friday's 10,000, where Hedrick is the world record holder. No one is surprised. We were supposed to be good.

But it's still speedskating, and speedskating doesn't stir the American soul. But a good old-fashioned rivalry, bordering on a feud, now that's something we all can relate to.

If we Johnny-come-lately scribes have the thing scoped at least semi-correctly, it was a rivalry based mainly on competition until late last week. Sure, Davis has a reputation for being aloof and Hedrick can run the mouth a little, but it wasn't like it was a Nancy-Tonya redux kind of thing until Davis declined a request to be a part of the team pursuit, the assumption being it was too close to his big race, the 1,000. Skating with a substitute, the US squad failed to medal. Oh boy.

Hedrick let it be known he wasn't happy with Davis, and we went from there.

Davis did win his 1,000, joining Hedrick, who had won the 5,000, as a gold medalist. And after each was beaten by Fabris yesterday they discussed a number of topics, including the juicy one as to whether their perceived conflict was actually good for the sport. After all, Americans didn't tune into the ladies' figure skating long program en masse in 1994 because they were up on their lutzes, salchows, and axels. They were hoping Nancy and Tonya would tear each other's eyes out.

No, said Davis. It wasn't good.

Calling speedskating a ''traditional" Olympic sport, Davis said it never has anything to do with trying to defeat one man. ''There are 42 competitors," he said. ''I always try to skate my race. It's not head-to-head. I've skated head-to-head. It's called short track. This is long track. You skate your race against the clock. It's that, and it's ice conditions. You go for it. That's point one, period. I don't appreciate it when people try to make things out other than they are."

Yes, said Hedrick, it was good.

''We've got a difference of opinion right there," Hedrick responded. ''I think it's great that Shani and I are battling [on the ice]. Americans love that. They want to see a battle."

''I totally disagree," Davis re-responded. ''This is not a heavyweight fight. Again, it's skating. It's not about trying to beat one person. It's about doing your best. If you concentrate on beating one person, another person can slip through the crevices. It's more than Shani and Chad. This isn't Shaq vs. Kobe. We're not rolling around in the snow."

Hedrick skated in the 20th, or next-to-last, pair. Davis skated in the last pair. Too bad, we figured. It would have been fun to see them go one-on-one.

''If that had happened," said Hedrick, ''we would have killed each other."

''I don't agree with that," Davis said. ''He's speaking from his point of view."

He said, he said. On and on it went, but right up until the end, it always stopped short of getting personal. There were two things they could agree on. The first was that neither skated the race he wished to skate. There was a gold to be had, and neither was up to it. The second thing was that Monsieur Fabris was a likable fellow and deserving conqueror.

''I've been skating against him since juniors," said Davis. ''He's always had the potential and the talent. He was the best man today."

But Enrico Fabris is the Italian story. We've got Shani and Chad. I think that ding-a-ling I just heard was from Larry King's producer.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.