Looks like something as simple as a coin toss to break a tie is racist now

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PYEONGCHANG, South Korea -- 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.

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Hamlin and Davis were among eight nominees for the flag-bearer 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 balloting that took place Wednesday night.

Eventually, the final vote was deadlocked at 4-4. Hamlin won a coin toss, which was the predetermined method of picking a winner if all else failed in the athlete-led process. The U.S. Olympic Committee confirmed the tie, and that voters knew in the event of a tie, the coin toss would take place.

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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. @TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018 #PyeongChang2018

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