Yesterday in Sochi proved to be yet another disappointment for the USA speed-skating team. In the 1,500 meter event Brian Hansen finished seventh and two-time silver medalist Shani Davis finished 11th. Davis also finished eighth in the 1,000 meter last Wednesday. Extremely disappointing considering Davis’ career and the many medal expectations for these games, CBS News.
The disappointment doesn’t end with the Men’s team. Heather Richardson and the Women’s team have also failed to meet expectations. She finished seventh in the 1,500 meter and eighth in the 500 meter.
The team is still stunned at what has taken place.
While the focus should be on the victors of these events (mainly the Dutch), it has otherwise been on USA’s high-tech skin-suits.
Team USA came together with Under-Armor in effort to create a skin-suit that would revolutionize this sport, keenly named the “Mach 39.” While yes they did revolutionize the sport, it wasn’t the end result they had in mind.
The only speed we’re seeing from our own athletes right now is the speed in which it takes them to come up with another excuse.
Due to the lack of results, the team switched back to their “World Cup” and “Olympic Trial” suits for yesterday’s competition.
They didn’t work the same kind of magic that superman’s cape does. The American’s still struggled, while the Dutch have now captured 16 of a possible 24 possible medals.
Shani Davis said this of the new skin-suits: "The best thing would have been to make sure that these suits were what the people said they were, so that we can actually know going into the races instead of finding out in one of the biggest races of our lives,” according to NBC Sports.
American’s take pride in our athletes because of certain qualities that separate us from others. Toughness, perseverance and a great attitude are some examples we look for in a U.S. Athlete.
The USA speed-skating team is doing their best job of turning off the fans with the suit excuse.