Flag Bearer Coin Toss Drama Already At The 2018 Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang

It was a feel-good story for a few hours: Luge veteran Erin Hamlin gets the chance to enter her last Olympics carrying the U.S. flag into the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Games, winning that distinction after a vote by some of her fellow athletes.

And then Shani Davis tweeted.

With that, the entire process was called into controversy. The tweet posted to Davis' account said the process by which Hamlin won was executed "dishonorably," and included a reference to Black History Month — raising the question of whether the speedskater was suggesting that race played a role in the decision.

Davis is black, Hamlin is white.

"We feel strongly toward Shani and they felt strongly for Erin," U.S. speedskater Joey Mantia said. "That's just that."

Hamlin and Davis were among eight nominees for the flagbearer role, and athletes from each of the eight winter sports federations — bobsled and skeleton, ski and snowboarding, figure skating, curling, biathlon, hockey, speedskating and luge — represented those nominees in a balloting that took place Wednesday night.

(ARTICLE: AP)

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Speed skater Shani Davis hot over not being flag-bearer: 'Team USA dishonorably tossed a coin'

Tweet from speedskater's account rips flagbearer coin toss

Shani Davis' Tweet