The Winter Olympics begin Friday in Vancouver, where speedskater Shani Davis hopes to add to the medals he won in 2006. Davis is favored to win his in the 1,500-meter race.
Of his status as the first black athlete to win an individual event gold medal in the Winter Olympics, the American tells NPR's Neal Conan, "Its nice to be a pioneer of any sport in America or the world. I was just happy to accomplish my dreams and goals in speedskating."
Other highlights from their conversation:
On being a trailblazer at the Winter Olympics:
"I try not to view myself as an outsider. I feel like I'm becoming more and more accepted. So that's a good thing. I guess progress is being made. I'm just a rare entity for the sport of speedskating, so I guess sometimes it's hard to understand that sometimes, a lot of people don't understand that, but that's OK, that's cool."
On not participating in the team pursuit event:
"All my life I've been training on my own. I've never been a part of the long-track national team. Usually that event seems to just not correlate or respond to what I'm trying to do or accomplish within skating."
"I always try to view myself as the underdog. I'm not the type of athlete that likes to become very comfortable with what I've accomplished already or throughout the season. Every day brings a new challenge and I hope I can rise above those challenges and be very successful."
On fame and celebrity:
"I'm more of a private type of guy. I don't like the recognition. The celebrity status of being a superstar athlete — quote unquote — I don't care for all the recognition and things like that. I'm more of a private type of guy."
On life after skating:
"I'll try to give back to the people who helped raise me and nurture me, guided me in the right direction, and put me on the right path. I would love to do a lot of things with kids and younger youth. Hopefully I can help influence and motivate them to achieve their goals and dreams as well."
On popularizing speedskating:
"It would be nice if the sport would develop. But I feel like it's not a sport that's popular enough to be able to grasp the mainstream attention away from basketball and football and other sports where children see superstar athletes on a daily basis making millions of dollars.
"It's more of a grass-roots-level type of personal-interest sport. We don't have the right type of exposure to be able to grow into a mainstream sport. So the sport has stayed very small. I would say the best, not even the best people, the most talented kids never had a chance to speedskate because they never knew anything about it."
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