The 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy are less than a year away, and if speed skater Shani Davis races like he did at the World All-Around Championships earlier this month, by this time next year, he will be an Olympic champion.

"My goals are to make myself stronger, and try to come home with some medals," Davis said. "If I make the team, I want to try to be the highest guy on the podium."

At 22, Shani became the first African-American, and fourth American, to ever win the World All-Around Championships, held in Moscow -on February 5 and 6. With 24 participants from 11 countries competing in the 500 m, 1,500 m, 5,000 m, and 10,000 m races, the all-around championship is one of the highest titles a speed skater can earn. Shani won by placing first in the 1,500 m, second in the 500 m, and fifth in both the 5,000 and 10,000 m.

"I was very proud that he won the World Championships," Cherie Davis, Shani's mother, said. "He really worked hard this summer." Ms. Davis raised Shani on the south side of Chicago until moving to Rogers Park, just south of Evanston. Roller-skating since he was two, Shani was encouraged to try skating on ice after it appeared he had grown bored of roller-skating. Taking the advice of a coworker, Cherie got Shani involved with the Evanston Speed Skating Club when he was six, and he has never looked back.

Shani and his mother have a very close relationship with one another. "I think its one of the most important things in the world to have someone that you can truly trust and depend on, and that's my mom," he said. "She really believed in me being a good skater before I thought I could be."

"Shani skated, and made friends, and it was fun," Ms. Davis said. When Shani got started, Ms. Davis did not realize that speed skating was thought of as a white sport. "Every time we went to a meet, it was always in a white suburb," she said.

Race has constantly been an issue surrounding Shani and his accomplishments. "I try not to make too much out of it," Shani said. "Being black is the choice of the parents who made me. It has no effect on my skating. I go out there just like every other skater and want to win," he said.

As to why more minorities do not participate in the sport, Shani and his mother agreed that speed skating is not publicized "correctly." According to the two of them, speed skating is hardly promoted at all. Ms. Davis also pointed to the problem of having no speed skating clubs in inner cities, including Chicago, which could bring in more minorities. "In the U.S., speed skating just isn't that popular," she said. "Nobody really cares about it."

"If skating had the proper coverage and people were able to see it on television, all kinds of kids would want to do it," Shani said. "Since they don't see it, I don't think they really know about it."

Shani is helping create enthusiasm for the sport by helping out at the Robert Crown Center with the Evanston Speed Skating Club. "Whenever he's in town, he always attends our meets," said Sanders Hicks, founder and coach of the Evanston Club. "I love kids a lot and I try to help them out with everything, on the ice and off," Shani said. He calls himself a big kid, saying he likes playing video games just like the kids. "I really like the fact that they feel comfortable around me," he said. "I think that they think it's cool that a world champion started in Evanston." When asked what everyone should know about him, Shani's reply was plain and simple. "I'm just a person," he said. "I have goals and dreams just like everybody else. I like doing things that every average 22-year-old kid likes too," he said. After a quick hesitation, he rephrased himself: "That every 22-year-old adult likes to do." Looks like Shani is a big kid, after all.