(CNN) The Winter Olympics haven't even officially started yet, and we already have our first controversy -- and it's over who'll carry the US flag in the opening ceremony.

On one side is Erin Hamlin, a world-renowned luger, two-time world champion and four-time Olympian.

On the other is Shani Davis -- a decorated speed skater and five-time Olympics qualifier.

The flag bearer is typically chosen in a vote of the eight US winter sport federations, which represent biathlon, bobsled and skeleton, curling, figure skating, hockey, luge, ski and snowboarding, and speed skating.

But this year, Hamlin and Davis tied 4-4.

And Davis was definitely not happy about it, venting in a tweet that the coin toss was "dishonorably" done.

"I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event," Davis tweeted. "@TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018 #PyeongChang2018."

CNN has reached out to the US Olympic Committee for comment.

For her part, Hamlin said she was excited about the prospect of carrying the flag.

"Working hard and earning success is one thing, being acknowledged as a great representative and member of Team USA by fellow athletes -- many who I have been inspired by -- is above and beyond anything I've experienced," Hamlin said in a statement.

"It is definitely a privilege and honor to be the one to lead the team and will be a very special moment. I can't wait to share it with them all!"

Hamlin will be the sixth woman in 23 games to carry the US flag, and the first since 2006.</s>GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) - Shani Davis would've been a fitting choice to carry the American flag into the Olympic opening ceremony, a superb athlete who helped break racial barriers at the Winter Games.

Someone sure dropped the coin on this one.

The U.S. Olympic Committee, an organization that never passes up a chance to shoot itself in the foot, came up with a voting process that could quite plausibly end in a tie.

It did, of course.

And how was the deadlock broken?

With the flip of a coin.

Whether it was heads or tails, we may never know. But the call went in favor of Erin Hamlin, so the luger will have the honor of carrying the stars and stripes into the stadium on Friday night .

"Maybe the process is a tad flawed," said Joey Mantia, one of Davis' teammates on the U.S. speedskating team.

While Hamlin is certainly deserving - she'll be competing in her fourth and final Olympics at Pyeongchang - her resume pales in comparison. Her only Olympic medal is a bronze. The 35-year-old Davis has two golds and a pair of silvers, not to mention a bunch of world championships and the second-most World Cup titles for any male skater in the history of the sport.

Beyond the stellar results, Davis has been a trailblazer.

An African-American in a mostly white sport, he became the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Games with his 1,000-meter triumph in 2006. Four years later, he became the first skater - of any color - to defend his title in that event.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Davis will be joined in Pyeongchang by the first two African-American women to make the U.S. speedskating team - Erin Jackson on the big oval and Maame Biney in short track.

"I don't think there's been an African-American flag bearer, ever, for the Winter Games," Mantia pointed out, quite correctly. "That would've been really cool."

Davis took offense at how it all went down or, at the very least, expressed his frustrations through whoever was running his verified Twitter account on Thursday.

He implied that race played a factor in the decision.

"I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event," the tweet said. "@TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018."

Trouble is, Davis isn't likely to get another chance at carrying the flag.

He would have to keep skating until he's 39 to make it to Beijing. These Olympics - his fifth - are largely viewed as the farewell to a brilliant career, even by his teammates .

"It's sad that Shani wanted it and didn't get it, and this is probably his last Olympics," Mantia said, shrugging off Davis' reference to 2022. "I think he's just saying that in jest."

The flag bearer is selected by a panel of athletes representing each of the eight Winter Olympic federations. After several rounds of balloting, the final round of voting came down to Davis and Hamlin. The USOC, clearly aware a tie was possible, let it be known before the games that a coin flip would be used to decide the winner if that happened.

Perhaps even more puzzling is why Davis wasn't the overwhelming choice among his fellow U.S. athletes.

"On paper, it doesn't make sense for anybody else to do it," Mantia said. "Nobody is more deserving in my opinion."

Even Hamlin laughed off the possibility of carrying the flag when it was presented to her by The Associated Press a couple of months ago.

"That always seems to be a really, really big-name person," she said.

But let's remember: The choice of flag bearer goes beyond mere athletic accomplishment. It's also a popularity contest, and the perception of Davis - framed by a prickly relationship with the U.S. media, his longstanding decision to train separately from the national team, and a much-publicized feud with fellow American Chad Hedrick during the 2006 Games - might have persuaded some voters to go with Hamlin.

That, too, would be a shame.

While Davis has surely rubbed a few people the wrong way, the vast majority of his fellow skaters talk glowingly about his impact on U.S. speedskating and a willingness to share his wealth of knowledge with the next generation.

"He looks after the younger people like me and gives great advice," said 21-year-old Emery Lehman, who will be competing in his second Olympics at Pyeongchang. "He's not selfish at all."

Let's hope race didn't play a factor, but it's impossible to deny that an outspoken black athlete faces a much greater chance of backlash from a largely white fan base, the mostly white media and, yes, even some fellow athletes who are white.

Those issues, a long time in the making, won't be settled anytime soon.

But the USOC can come up with a better process for picking the flag bearer.

This should be a feel-good moment.

It shouldn't come down to the flip of a coin.

Paul Newberry is a sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry@ap.org or at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/paul%20newberry

AP Sports Writers Tim Reynolds and Beth Harris contributed to this report.</s>After luger Erin Hamlin was chosen as the United States' representative for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Davis wrote the following:

According to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com), Hamlin and Davis were two of the eight candidates to carry the flag. A 4-4 deadlock in the voting led to a coin flip, which resulted in Hamlin winning the right to be flag-bearer.

The United States Olympic Committee made it known that voters were aware of a coin flip being the final tiebreaker if no majority decision could be reached.

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

After learning of her selection, Hamlin offered the following, per the AP (h/t ESPN.com): "The nerves will be flying for sure. I slide. That's what I do. Put me at the top of the track, that's my happy place. Walking out in front of a lot of people and even more watching from home, hoping to not trip over my own feet or drop the flag is going to be way more nerve-wracking."

The 35-year-old Davis is now a five-time Olympian who has won two gold medals and two silver medals. At the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, he became the first African American athlete to win individual gold at the Winter Olympics.

Hamlin, 31, is set to enter her fourth and final Winter Games. She won bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, making her the first American luger to ever medal at the Winter Olympics in singles competition.

The opening ceremony for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics will take place Friday.</s>PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA—In his address to a shivering crowd of 35,000, Lee Hee-Beom promised the Pyeongchang Winter Games would be “above all, a peace Olympics.’’ For the most part, Friday’s Opening Ceremony fulfilled his wish.

South and North Korea marched into Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium together, under a unified flag featuring the silhouette of the Korean peninsula on a white background. U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence stood only a few seats away from Kim Yo-Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. And two unexpected guests—a Donald Trump impersonator and a Kim impersonator—showed up together without a fistfight breaking out.

Not everyone heard the plea for peace made by Lee, president of Pyeongchang’s Olympic organizing committee. Before the ceremony, about 800 people gathered outside the stadium to protest against North Korea, burning posters of Kim and chanting slogans. But the mood was different inside, on a night that kicked off the first Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Figure skater Yuna Kim, perhaps the most famous and beloved athlete in South Korea, lit the cauldron to end an Opening Ceremony that reflected the host country: modest, technically proficient and warm enough to take the edge off a bitter night. The temperature was not quite as frigid as feared, holding in the upper 20s with a wind chill in the mid-teens.

Many of the 2,920 athletes bundled up and marched, despite some concerns that it wouldn’t be healthy for them to spend hours standing in the cold. Others didn’t bother with the bundling.

Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua—the bare-chested, grass-skirted, oiled-up sensation of the Rio Summer Olympics—carried his nation’s flag again after making the Olympics in cross-country skiing. He showed just as much skin as he did in Rio, as did a Bermuda delegation that proved no weather is inappropriate for their shorts.

“I won’t freeze,’’ Taufatoua said. “I am from Tonga. We sailed across the Pacific. This is nothing.’’

The U.S. has 242 athletes competing in Pyeongchang, the most of any country and the largest team in Winter Games history. Most of them participated in the Parade of Nations, getting an earlier-than-usual slot because countries marched in Korean alphabetical order.

With the sound system blasting “Gangnam Style,’’ the 2012 international hit by the Korean star Psy, the Americans danced into the stadium wearing coats with battery-powered heaters. Luge athlete Erin Hamlin waved the flag with gusto, enjoying a moment that generated controversy earlier Friday when U.S. speedskater Shani Davis complained that he wasn’t chosen.

Davis lost a coin flip after a tie vote for the honor and did not attend the ceremony.

The Olympic Athletes from Russia entered the stadium dressed in white, though the Russian flag did make an appearance among a group of defiant fans. In a strong statement on the eve of the Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport kept the delegation at 168 athletes, denying an appeal by several others to be allowed to compete in Pyeongchang.

Russia’s flag, national anthem and team uniforms are banned from the Games as punishment for a state-sponsored doping scheme at the 2014 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee invited select athletes who proved themselves clean, but the arbitration court closed the door Friday on others who wanted in.

The night’s most extended cheers were saved for the host country and its hostile northern neighbor, who marched together in an Olympic Opening Ceremony for the fourth time. The two nations technically are still at war; the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, but a peace treaty never was signed.

With Pyeongchang only 50 miles from the demilitarized zone separating the countries, many feared the belligerent Kim would create havoc during the Games. Those worries eased when he decided to send 22 athletes, his sister and a delegation of cheerleaders, officials and performers to the Olympics.

But amid the complicated politics of reunification, many South Koreans resented Kim’s intrusion into an event they had been working toward for seven years. The relations are so fraught that even the flagbearing protocol was subject to negotiation.

South Korea’s Won Yunjong, who shared the duty with North Korea’s Hwang Chung Gum, used that loaded word—‘’interesting’’—to describe his feelings over the joint march. But under the spell of the Olympics, he was happy to be among the symbols of peace on a night rich with them.

“This is a very special moment for Korea,’’ he said. “It is special that we are here, peaceful and together.’’</s>It was a feel-good story for a few hours: luge veteran Erin Hamlin gets the chance to enter her last Olympics carrying the US 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.

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“I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event,” wrote Davis on Twitter. “@TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018”

Shani Davis (@ShaniDavis) I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event. @TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018 #PyeongChang2018 pic.twitter.com/dsmTtNkhJs

US speedskater Joey Mantia was more circumspect. “We feel strongly toward Shani and they felt strongly for Erin,” 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 ballot that took place on Wednesday night.

The final vote was deadlocked at 4-4. Hamlin won a coin toss, the predetermined method of picking a winner if all else failed in the athlete-led process. The US Olympic Committee confirmed the tie, and that voters knew if the tie couldn’t be broken by them the coin toss would have to occur.

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Davis was certainly a worthy candidate. He is now a five-time Olympian, with two gold medals and two silver medals in his collection. It could not be determined if Davis posted the tweet himself, or if anyone else with access to his account may have. Davis’ mother, Cherie, said she was unaware of the tweet until an AP reporter spoke to her by phone. “I know something about a coin toss, he told me last night,” she said on Thursday. “I don’t know anything else. Is that all?”



Hamlin is a four-time Olympian, a winner of a bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi Games, a two-time world champion and a winner of 23 World Cup medals. Despite that resume, Hamlin who is retiring after the Olympics never thought she would be the pick. In December, when asked in an interview if she thought it would be possible, Hamlin laughed. “To me, that always seems to be a really, really big-name person,” Hamlin said at the time.

This is not the first time Davis has been part of an Olympic controversy.

In 2006 Davis became the first African American to win an individual gold medal at a Winter Games but decided not to take part in the team pursuit and raised the ire of team-mate Chad Hedrick. Their animosity toward one another was obvious at a news conference, when Hedrick brought up the team pursuit and Davis stormed out of the room.</s>Team USA have acted "dishonourably" by tossing a coin to decide who would be their Winter Olympics flag bearer, a double gold medallist has claimed.

Speed skater Shani Davis appeared to criticise the decision on Twitter after luge slider Erin Hamlin was selected ahead of him for the role at Friday's opening ceremony in Pyeongchang.

Davis, competing in his fifth Games, used the hashtag 'Black History Month'.

He was the first black athlete to win individual Winters gold in 2006.

And he retained that 1000m long track title four years later, as well as winning 1500m silver in both Turin and Vancouver.
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Hamlin - who will race in her fifth and final Games - and Davis were among eight nominees for the flag bearer role.

They were tied at four votes each after an athlete from each of the USA's eight winter sports federations held a ballot on Wednesday.

It had already been agreed prior to the vote by the US Olympic Committee that a tie would be broken by a coin toss.

"We feel strongly toward Shani and they felt strongly for Erin," US speed skater Joey Mantia said. "That's just that."

Speaking before Davis' tweet, Hamlin said her family would be thrilled to watch her carry the flag.

"They're really pumped," she said. "We've grown up watching the Olympics and we're always like, 'Who's going to be carrying the flag?' And to actually be that person is insane."

Hamlin's team-mate Jayson Terdiman added that it is "one of the coolest things".

He said: "Not just does Erin get to hold that flag, but USA Luge gets to hold that flag. It's so cool. It's a great honour for our small sport."</s>Speed skating pioneer Shani Davis made no secret of his desire to carry the stars and stripes into the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang Friday with a tweet aimed directly at the U.S. Olympic Committee.

"I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event," Davis, an Olympian for the fifth time at these Games, posted on his verified Twitter account. "@TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022."

He even seemed to suggest that race may have played a role in the outcome as he added hastag "BlackHistoryMonth2018" to the end of his tweet.

The coin toss went in favor of veteran luger Erin Hamlin after the final vote of the eight winter sports federations ended deadlocked at 4-4.

Davis, who owns two Olympic gold medals and a pair of silvers, is the first African-American athlete to win an individual title at a Winter Games.

Hamlin, from Remsen, New York, is a four-time Olympian who captured a bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi Games.

The balloting took place Wednesday night. An athlete from each of the federations - bobsled and skeleton, ski and snowboarding, figure skating, curling, biathlon, hockey, speedskating and luge - voted for one of the eight nominees for the flag-bearer gig.

The U.S. Olympic Committee confirmed the tie to the AP and said that everyone involved knew that a coin toss would decide things if the final vote was all tied up.

Before Davis injected controversy into the vote, Hamlin expressed disbelief after being told she would lead Team USA into the ceremony to keep off the Pyeongchang Games.

"We've grown up watching the Olympics and we're always like, 'Who's going to be carrying the flag?' she said. "And to actually be that person is insane."

Hamlin, who is retiring after these Olympics, said "the nerves will be flying for sure."

"I slide," the two-time world champ added. "That’s what I do. Put me at the top of the track, that’s my happy place. Walking out in front of a lot of people and even more watching from home, hoping to not trip over my own feet or drop the flag is going to be way more nerve-wracking.”

USA Luge declined comment to the AP on Davis' tweet.

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

- With The Associated Press</s>Shani Davis wasn’t at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. After pitching a fit over who got to be Team USA’s flag bearer, the speed skater was nowhere in sight.

Was this just a timing issue or a little bit of shade? Shani Davis, 35, wasn’t with the rest of Team USA when they entered the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium for the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 9. The speed skater was absent, and considering what he said about who got to be the country’s flag bearer, the timing has raised a few eyebrows. Luger Erin Hamlin, 31, had the honor of carrying the red, white, and blue as the Americans made their grand entrance (to Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” according to Daily Beast).

Was this shade, or just coincidence? It’s possible that Shani wanted to keep his body in peak condition for his upcoming events. Fellow skater Brian Hansen, 31, also skipped the event. “Opening Ceremony is one of my favorite days from the past two Olympic Games I’ve competed in,” Brian told NBC 5’ Katie Kim, “but at the same time, you know, I remember the next day, my legs were just a little stiff, my lower back was a little sore, so, you know, I think I might skip it this time around.” Brian later wrote on Instagram that he was “super excited to watch [Team USA] walk in!” However, Shani has remained silent, so many have said his absence was a boycott!

He got caught up in some drama ahead of the games. The final choice for flag bearer came down to between Shani and Erin, as eight voters – one representing each of the U.S. Olympic committee’s different sports federations involved in the Winter Games – were evenly split. The 4-4 tie was broken with a coin toss. Erin won and Shani was pissed. “I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event. @TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer,” he tweeted.

“No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018 #PyeongChang2018,” he added. The hashtags seem to allude that there was something more with the coin toss, but there was no evidence that the coin was weighted or the toss was altered in any way, according to Huffington Post. Interesting enough, US Speed Skating officials said that Shani wasn’t going to attend the ceremony in the first place, as it would have disrupted his training regiment (though, he did say he reconsidered going to the event after he was nominated as a flag bearer.) So, if he wasn’t going to make the ceremony to begin with, what’s the big deal?

HolllywoodLifers, what do you think about this? Do you think Shani should have gone?</s>Choosing which world-class athlete would carry the American flag at the Opening Ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympics did not come without controversy.

Two-time Olympic speedskating champion Shani Davis said Team USA “dishonorably” used a coin toss to determine its flag bearer for the Games this year. The U.S. Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that luger Erin Hamlin would carry the flag for Team USA at the Opening Ceremony on Friday.

“I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event,” Davis tweeted. “Team USA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022.”

He also included a hashtag noting that it was Black History Month.

The coin toss, according to the Associated Press, came after a 4-4 tie between Davis and Hamlin. Olympic athletes from the eight different sports federations — biathlon, bobsled and skeleton, curling, hockey, figure skating, ski and snowboarding, luge and speedskating — voted for their choice, resulting in the tie.

Representatives from the U.S. Olympic Committee, the U.S. Speedskating Team and the U.S. Luge team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from TIME.

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Davis and Hamlin are both renowned athletes in their sport and have both made history at the Winter Olympics before. Davis is not only the first black athlete to ever win a gold medal in an individual event at the Winter Olympics, but also the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in the 1000 meters. He also has won the silver medal for the 1500-meter race twice. His two back-to-back wins came in 2006 and 2010. One of the most decorated athletes in his sport, Davis he will be competing in his fifth Winter Olympics this year.

Davis was also the first black athlete to qualify for Team USA’s Olympic speedskating team. This year, two other black athletes are on the team. Maame Biney, who has said Davis is one of her inspirations, will compete for the short track speedskating team, and Erin Jackson, an experienced inline skater who only started training on the ice just months ago, will compete for the long-track speedskating team. The three athletes are some of the few black athletes competing for Team USA.

A four-time Olympian, Hamlin became the first American athlete to win a medal in the luge event in Winter Olympics history when she earned a bronze at the 2014 Games in Sochi. A two-time world champion, Hamlin also has 23 world cup medals.

“Working hard and earning success is one thing, being acknowledged as a great representative and member of Team USA by fellow athletes – many who I have been inspired by – is above and beyond anything I’ve experienced,” Hamlin said in the announcement of her role as flag bearer. “It is definitely a privilege and honor to be the one to lead the team and will be a very special moment.”</s>Team USA has selected luger Erin Hamlin as its flag bearer for the Olympic opening ceremony in PyeongChang.

Hamlin, who was selected for the role by her teammates, will carry the flag for Team USA during the ceremony Friday.

She will be the fourth luger to serve as U.S. flag bearer and the first since 2010.

The three-time Olympian, who won bronze in Sochi, was the first American female on the U.S. Luge team to medal. She plans to retire after the PyeongChang games.

“Being named to an Olympic Team is an amazing accomplishment, and making four teams and winning the bronze medal is so much more than I could I have imagined I would accomplish. Now being voted flag bearer is a whole new level,” Hamlin said in a statement.

“Working hard and earning success is one thing, being acknowledged as a great representative and member of Team USA by fellow athletes – many who I have been inspired by – is above and beyond anything I’ve experienced. It is definitely a privilege and honor to be the one to lead the team and will be a very special moment. I can’t wait to share it with them all!”
Luger Erin Hamlin is selected as the Team USA flag bearer after winning a tie-breaking coin toss against speed skater Shani Davis.