Savvy Marketing

As Bryant Gumbel told us there aren't very many black athletes at the Winter Olympics. But American speed skater Shani Davis was there and he won the gold medal in the 1000 meters. Davis has long been the bane of the U.S. Speed Skating organization because of his outspoken mom. Davis refused to participate in the team event, in which the U.S. lost, causing gold medalist Chad Hedrick to criticize him.
Davis finally got his shining moment, and after his gold medal performance he was interviewed by the lovely and perky Melissa Stark. Here's the transcript of the interview:

Melissa Stark: What does this win mean to you?
Shani Davis: It means that all my hard work paid off finally.
MS: You are the first African-American male to win a gold medal at the Winter Games. How proud are you of that?
SD: I'm pretty happy about it.
MS: That's it?
SD: Yeah.
MS (clearly rattled): Your mom, Sherie, you credit her with much of your success. Is this medal as much for her as it is for you?
SD: Yeah, she earned it too.
MS: Are you angry, Shani?
SD: No, I'm happy I just have a loss for words right now.
MS: All right, you sure do look happy. [sarcastically] Dan, back to you. [eye roll]

It was the weirdest interview with a gold medalist I've ever seen. Why did he agree to do it if that's how he was going to behave? That's the only time most people in American will ever see him, and that's what he did. Now, I bet Bryant Gumbel will do a Real Sports monologue on why athletes like Apollo Anton Plano and Joey Cheek will get endorsement deals and Davis does not. But I sure hope they don't try to blame it on race.