Q1: Chad stated in the mixed zone that perhaps you two were too focused on each other and not enough on the race. Would you agree with that?

DAVIS: I don't agree with that because he's speaking with his views. From my personal views I was just focused on trying to go out there and do my best. I knew the time that I had to beat and I went for it, but I just wasn't strong enough when I needed to be down the backstretch and down the 1500 meter finish.

Q2: Were you expecting Enrico Fabris to do so well, was he someone on your radar screen and what do you think of him as a skater?

DAVIS: If you look at the World Cup standings, there were four 1500 meter skates before the Olympics. If you break it down, the people who won those World Cups, they won it where they trained or where their hometown (was) or whatever. For example, the very first 1500 meters in Calgary I won. The one where we went to Salt Lake City Chad won and got the world record, the third one Kuipers won, he won that in Heerenveen (NED). The fourth and final one, Fabris won. I've been skating against Fabris since I was a junior and I've always known the potential and the talent that he posed as a skater. I never once underestimated him because he ... it's kind of similar to the 1000. There are sprinters who skate the 1000 and then you have all-round people who can skate the 1000. In the 1500 you maybe have all-rounders who skate moreso like a sprinter who can skate the 1500 and then you have an all-rounder who is stronger in the longer distances that can skate the 1500. It's totally different strategies and his strategy posed to be the best today.

Q3: Do you think you should have changed your own strategy, started slower and had more left in the end?

DAVIS: I only know how to skate the way I've wanted to skate. I've never skated the 1500 slower in the beginning and tried to turn it on in the end. I think it‘s a good tool to have and I think in the future I'll practice it because you can't go out there on slower ice and skate like you would skate in Calgary and stuff like that. But even in Milwaukee I still skated the same way, I still have the same strategy pretty much for the same 1500 meters. But that's the beautiful thing about the race is that you don't have to necessarily have the fastest opener to win the 1500, you know?  I think Fabris did an excellent job. And what could be more rewarding than winning the 1500 race that you're not quite the favorite in, in your home country at the Olympics. That's something that's really big. I dream that I could do that. But maybe for me, where I stand in skating, I don't know when the next Olympics will be in America. So I think from now on, I'm not going to rule out any possibilities of skating races differently, I'm going to learn how to do everything.

Q4: Do you guys ever wish you could go head to head, when it's so close like this, in a format more like short track?

HEDRICK: For me personally, coming from inline skating, I've raced people my whole life and that was the biggest adjustment for me, coming to ice, was having to race against the clock rather than racing people. 5That was a big adjustment for me. Here you have to understand that you're not just racing the clock, you're not going out there to beat this person or beat that person. You have to come up with a strategy and execute that strategy. Whether it's to start off slow at the beginning of the race and build into it or start off fast .. I skated the wrong strategy for myself today and it cost me in the last lap, but you live and learn.

Q5: Shani, Chad had said that whatever happened between you before, it was not a personal rivalry, it was a competitive rivalry. How would you respond to that?

DAVIS: There's no rivalry between people who just want to do their best at what they do. I think that the rivalry or so-called rivalry has been there since 2004. It started in Hamar, we went one and two and then in Russia we went one and two and no one ever put any emphasis on it, no one ever questioned it until now. I just think it's poor, bad behavior based on a lot of people putting extra emphasis on this, and putting extra pressure on people when they have already pressure given to them by their coaches and the results that they're trying to accomplish once every four years. That's what I think.

Q6: I'm wondering what the two of you learned from this experience, both from what has been going on between the two of you and the results of your races.

HEDRICK: There's nothing going on between the two of us. Our relationship's the same as when we got here. I know Shani, I know a little bit about him, I know he's a great skater. That's as much as I know about him. I know he's from Chicago and after that I really don't know a lot about the guy. I know he's a hard worker and a really talented skater and he's my main competition every time I step out there on the ice. And I know if I'm paired with him, whether it be a race for the World Cup or the Olympics or a race in Salt Lake City for a qualifier that has no importance whatsoever, when we step to the line and we race each other, we bring out the best in each other. I think it's cool to have somebody like that who you can race against from time to time and it always helps the level of your skating.

Q7: I know the media gets blamed for a lot of things, but the reason for the rivalry is because after you won your medal, Chad went out of his way to say he wasn't going to congratulate you. That's why we assume it's a rivalry.

HEDRICK: I've stated this many times. He has a different approach to skating. He has some opinions that are different than mine and that's okay. He has the freedom to do whatever he wants to do, if he feels that by doing the team pursuit is going to hurt his 1000 meters or skipping the 1000 meters to do the 1500 to do whatever he might do. That's his agenda.

I may think different about things and every person has different thoughts. You have to respect that.

DAVIS: I personally still think that a lot of the media, they're very hungry. They want to get the best story, the best angle on everything. And sometimes when they do that they magnify a situation that was 1X to 10X.

Chad came here to win, he wanted to win five gold medals, okay? That was his goal. What happens when you fall short of your goal? Everyone handles it differently. There's always going to be competitiveness between us because, again, we're fighting for the same thing all the time. But, under the circumstances, the way Chad is, he's a champion skater and he has to do what's best for him and I do what I feel is best for me. I don't see why it has to be ... I mean, we're not Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

We're here to do our job and our job is to try to win and that's it. It's not like we're going to go fight each other and go roll around in the snow. We're adults and I think that people need to realize that and give more respect to the athlete and understand that we are human beings and we're not perfect and anything can happen. Anything.

HEDRICK: Can I finish one thing? Without the competitive tension that him and I have, we would not be the skaters that we are today. I'll be the first one to say that. I think him and I make each other stronger competing and everything. When I won the World Championship in 2004, I made him a better skater. When he went to Russia in Moscow, I'm sure he set his goals to raise his skating because of what I have done winning the World Championship. And because of what he did in Russia, I worked a little bit harder. It's just a chain. That's why we are so consistent and that's why we are raising the level of U.S.
Speedskating.