COMMENTARY

By Tim Dahlberg

updated 7:26 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Forgive Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick because they tried to put on a show, tried their best to stick to the party line and pretend it was all overblown, a media concoction.

They talked like they had been told what to say. And, until the very end, they said all the right things.

Just like the race they had just run, though, they had trouble finishing.

Under the hot lights, the script fell apart.

Finally, they just couldn’t stand it — or each other — anymore.

You might have suspected that when they sniped at each other a few days earlier. You didn’t have to look far for a clue when they refused to even acknowledge each other on the podium after winning medals in the speedskating 1,500.

For the better part of a half hour press conference Tuesday night, though, they didn’t crack. Until the end.

Davis stormed from the room, muttering about his teammate. Hedrick said he felt betrayed.

NBC was looking for some drama from an Olympics that so far has proved less lively than an episode of “Skating With Celebrities.” It got it from a pair of speedskaters who have nothing in common except the color of their uniforms.

As feuding teammates go, it didn’t rise to the level of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. It wasn’t Milton Bradley and Jeff Kent, or Barry Bonds and whoever was sharing the locker next to him. It wasn’t even Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan; no one got whacked in the leg here.

Koji Sasahara / AP Shani Davis of the United States claimed the silver medal in the 1,500-meter speedskating final.

“This is not a heavyweight boxing fight,” Davis insisted.

That’s too bad because Don King could really use these two. Get them in the ring quickly, though, if you don’t want to waste some good bad blood.

Because, by next week, America will have moved on and forgotten them both.

That’s the downside of toiling in a sport most Americans couldn’t care less about except every four years when Olympic medals are on the line. It’s hard to blame them because there’s nothing terribly exciting about watching guys in tight suits skate around an icy oval two at a time.

Slide show   Emotional Moments Feb. 26: See photos of athletes' highs and lows from Sunday.

Give Hedrick and Davis some credit for changing that, if only for a few days. They may have let an Italian slip by them for the gold medal in the 1,500, but they provided a show afterward that was more than worth the price of admission.

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