Inner city dreams in African American homes rarely consist of aspirations of becoming Winter Olympic gold medalists in speedskating.

For kids in the South Side of Chicago, a city dominated by not only basketball, but the greatest to ever play, “his airness,” Michael Jordan, a speedskating dream was especially abnormal.

During the Jordan-dominated 90s, young Shani Davis walked the South Side sporting aspirations of speedskating greatness on his chest, in the form of a sweatshirt covered with a picture of former Olympic Gold Medalist Bonnie Blair, the “Jordan” of women’s speed skating.

Picture it: A young black child, with a picture of a white girl on his shirt best known for winning gold medals in a sport in which no African American had ever won a gold medal. In fact, no African American had ever won gold in any Winter Olympic competition until this year when that same young kid with the out-of-the-ordinary black American dream stood atop the winner’s podium sporting his new favorite color, gold.

Davis’s story seems ideal for movie and book deal offers to roll in immediately, but beyond Shani’s Olympic gold medal lingers controversy surrounding his mother, Cherie Davis, and her tumultuous relationship with the media and U.S. speedskating officials and, not to mention Shani’s own recent verbal bouts with a fellow U.S. Olympic gold medalist, Chad Hendrick.

Cherie Davis’s fierce overbearing protection of her son has constantly shifted the spotlight of Shani’s successes. Yet, when questioned by media following his gold medal performance at the 1000m race, Shani laughed, joked, and entertained. He also defended his mother.

“Things happen for a reason. She did what she had to do. It worked,” Shani said. “There’s more than one way to get the wheels rolling. Sometimes it’s with hard love, sometimes it’s with pampering. If she wasn’t who she was, we wouldn’t have handled some of the things that happen in this sport. You have to show people you’re a tough dude.”

Picking one of the least popular sports in the city of Chicago among the black community could be grounds for a young kid to become a “tough dude” in very little time. Which could be reason for Mrs. Davis never letting her guards down, nor those of her son, throughout their journey in producing an Olympic champion.

Cherie Davis’s defense of her son led her to trying times against Shani’s biggest idols. When Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti approached Bonnie Blair following Davis’s gold medal win, he asked what she though of Davis’s win. She spoke of Joey Cheek skating impressively, but said that Cherie Davis sent her an e-mail telling her not to talk about Davis, adding “I’ve never said a bad word about him.”

“One of the hardest things for me, being an African American, is being in the sport of speedskating,” Shani remarked. “As you know, African Americans enter sports like track and field and basketball. I chose a different route. But I wake up every morning and love what I’m doing, regardless of color. To be able to achieve a dream is wonderful, whether I’m white, black, Hispanic or whatever.”

In either the best heavyweight rivalry between two skaters or the largest over-hyped verbal battle since Muhammad Ali versus everyone, Shani found himself among a debate with his “team” credibility on the line.

In his quest to attain his goal of Winter Olympic gold medalist in the 1000m speedskating event, Davis elected to not participate in last Wednesday’s team pursuit of gold in order to prepare himself. 5000m gold medalist Chad Hendrick, whose own goal was to win five gold medals, one of which was the 1000m in which he finished sixth and Shani won gold, elected to speak out against Davis’s decision. Claiming to be skating for the USA as a team, Hendrick said Davis would have helped the men medal, and maybe even win gold, in the team event.

While everyone is busy pointing out how selfish Shani Davis is for repeatedly saying that he was focused on winning gold in his individual race, people are blinded by Hendrick’s claim to be team focused, but neglects to mention how Davis won one of supposedly Hendrick’s gold medals the media had given him long before the race. Is this selfishness realized and turned into team love or is it jealousy turned into bitterness, covered by the word “team” in a sport in which individuals excel and win gold medals?

Today, after days of controversy surrounding the USA competitors Davis and Hendrick, we finally were able to see the two race to see who was the best. The result? Davis and Hendrick finished with silver and bronze medals, respectively. What does this mean? Let’s look at the board:

Shani Davis – 1 Gold, 1 silver.

Chad Hendrick – 1 Gold, 1 bronze.

Currently Davis is in the lead by a nose. Just like a good heavyweight fight, anticipating the end results when the ice dust is cleared and we see who will excel above the other.

If you haven’t been following the 2006 Winter Olympics, don’t feel bad because you are not the only person in the world doing so. In fact, you’re among the majority of Americans who would rather watch shows such as American Idol (which doubled the Olympic viewers two Sundays ago) than follow along with the 2006 Winter Olympics.

But what you’re missing out on is one of the greatest breakthroughs in Winter Olympic history.

The Arthur Ashe of speed skating has emerged.

Shani Davis, the “HeHateMe” of the speedskating world, and his mother, Cherie Davis, are on their own island, holding strong against competition. Both in skating and in the media world.

They think the battle will get easier, but it won’t. What’s up next in the verbal battle department?

Bob Ryan, of the Boston Globe, appearing on the Tony Kornheiser show remarked about Davis, “I was impressed with his articulation.”

Successful black person complemented for not sounding too “hood.”

Now that’s a much larger scale battle than the Davis fam can take on alone.

Another topic for another day…