He(Hedrick)is the reason why the Americans didn't get into the semi-finals...
Totally incorrect. Hedrick and the other members were actually ahead of the Italians, unfortunately due to Shani Davis not caring about his team or his country, the US had a weak link Boutierre as the replacement for Davis.
But don't blame Boutierre, at leas he cared enough to try.
doesnt matter if Hendrick finished 2 laps ahead of the Italians, that's not the point of the race...
the team has to finish together, or as close together as they can...if hendrick had been a team player, he would have done what he should have done, let his teamates draft, or help his teamates draft...
There are things they could have and should have done to handle that. In the persuit teammates can push each other to give speed. Knowing who the slowest skater was he should have been in the middle, thus getting drafting help from the guy in front and pushes from the guy in back, instead they put the slowest skater in back so the only help he had was draft, and then when he couldn't keep up he lost the draft assistance and that was it.
Really the whole thing is a cluster. In non-Olympic speed skating competitions that include the persuit they do the persuit last so it won't interfere with anyone's individual races, here they stuck it in the middle which gives skaters a good reason to not want to be in the persuit. And they just included Davis without checking with him, which was kind of dumb. It's the only team event in long track speed skating, they shouldn't have assumed anyone would want to participate.