SOLE FOCUS AFTER SKIPPING TEAM PURSUIT, DAVIS WINS GOLD IN 1,000 METERS.

Byline: PAUL OBERJUERGE

TURIN, Italy - Shani Davis made Shani Davis his first priority. And he did the right thing. As awful as that sounds.

This young skater had lots on his plate Saturday.

He and U.S. Speedskating are locked in an ugly feud. Teammate Chad Hedrick is no fan of his, and becoming less so by the minute. Davis knows that the window for Olympic immortality is a narrow one, and could be shut four years from now.

Oh, and he's black, too. In about the whitest sport on the planet. A burden we can only guess at.

So when Davis flashed to victory in the 1,000-meter speedskating race at the Turin Olympics, becoming the first African American to win individual Winter Games gold, it was hard to work up righteous indignation over the path he took to get to the finish line first.

``You can say what you want about him,'' Dutch skater Erben Wennemars said of Davis, ``but he's an Olympic champion, so his decisions are right.''

The Davis decision that got the most attention here was a controversial one, to skip the one team event in long-track speedskating, team pursuit.

Davis essentially thumbed his nose at teammates and the U.S. Olympic Committee when he skipped the race. Probably dooming the U.S. to its no-medal early elimination - and opening a line of attack on his perceived selfishness and aloofness.

Davis likes to say he skipped the team event because he didn't want to take a spot on the ice from another American skater.

But it was about himself. As he conceded in a moment of candor last weekend when he said, ``I worked to get here. None of them, my teammates and stuff, helped me get where I am now. I worked hard and got myself here.''

Really, that's how most of these Olympic sports work.

Aside from collaborative sports such as hockey and bobsled, just about everyone else is in this for themselves. Hedrick, for example, won't be sharing his gold in the 5,000 meters with anybody else on the planet. We doubt he'll be divvying up his $25,000 bonus from the USOC with other U.S. Olympians.

Davis figured his best chance at Olympic gold was in the 1,000. He owns the world record in the event and was unbeaten this season in international competition.

He also could complete his own Olympic dream. ``Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to win the 1,000,'' he said. This, back when fellow African Americans on Chicago's Southside were mocking him as an ``Oreo.'' And when he stuck out at all-white ice rinks, even when he didn't want to.

Had he competed in team pursuit last Wednesday, he might have been in as many as three 3,000-meter races - two days before the 1,000 was scheduled.

He didn't want to wear himself out. He didn't want to risk injury. And yes, maybe he wanted to stick it to his enemies at the skating federation, too.

To suggest Davis is unique in looking out for himself ... that's an Olympics fantasy. ``Your individual races is what everyone concentrates on,'' speedskating veteran Derek Parra said. ``Team races come after that.''

What brought Davis into the public crosshairs was skipping an event the U.S. very likely could have won, had he participated. It also ended Hedrick's quixotic attempt for five gold medals.

But when we think this through, Davis did what he thought he had to do. He had his own career to look after. He wanted his own moment in the sun.

Davis said he didn't see himself as a Jackie Robinson-like barrier-buster. ``It would be if the sport was a bigger sport, but it isn't,'' he said. ``It's still a breakthrough, but it's what you make of it. If people are happy about it, I'm happy they're happy about it.''

Hedrick suggested Davis owed it to his team and country to compete in the team race - as Hedrick did, before finishing sixth in the 1,000, his weakest individual event.

Davis said it was easy for Hedrick to say that because he already had a gold medal in his pocket. ``If the 5,000 is one day after the pursuit, maybe he doesn't do it,'' Davis said. ``We'll never know.''

In our five-rings fantasies, athletes compete for home and country. It jars us when we have to confront the reality - they're out there for themselves.

It's too bad. On Shani Davis' biggest day, when he could have basked in triumph, when we should have been asking questions about why he carries a teddy bear around the track, Davis was awash in an undercurrent of selfishness and a lack of patriotism.

``I found one thing I'm good at,'' he said. ``I focused on the 1,000, and it only happens in the Olympics every four years. There's no telling that you'll ever get that opportunity again. Somebody might come along and take it from you.''

He's right. He might be the only American black man to win Winter gold. But he is just another name on the Olympics roster when it comes to looking out for No. 1.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) American Shani Davis (also above) is all smiles as he's surrounded by silver medalist Joey Cheek, left, and the Netherlands' Erben Wennemars, who took the bronze.

Photos by Dusan Vranic/Associated Press

(2 -- color) Shani Davis, right, finishes ahead of Canada's Jeremy Wotherspoon in his 1,000 meters.

Go Chai Hin/Getty Images

(3 -- color) no caption (Shani Davis)