Shani Davis of the U.S. looks dejected after competing in the men's 1,500-meter speedskating race at the Adler Arena Skating Center during the 2014 Winter Olympics in in Sochi, Russia, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

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SOCHI, Russia ― Shani Davis was bristling with frustration and trying to keep it in check, talking about how this Winter Olympics will haunt him for the rest of his life. Brian Hansen's coach was starting to weep as she spoke of the catastrophic turmoil that turned a bunch of predicted gold medals into a collective and embarrassing failure.

Joey Mantia tried to find a polite way of saying that his colleagues have yet to grasp that there is no "I" in the word "team," and coach Ryan Shimabukuro was dismissing the avalanche of criticism as nothing but the talk of a "pothead."

Welcome to the United States speedskating squad, perhaps the most dysfunctional team of the Sochi Games, in which chaos reigns and the high hopes that preceded the Olympics has turned into blame, anger and frustration.

Davis ― the two-time Olympic silver medalist, current world-record holder and owner of the season's best time in the 1500 meters ― could only place in 11th here on Saturday, three days after he failed to defend his gold medals in the 1000 meters from the two previous Games.

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Hansen, another legitimate contender in the 1500, placed seventh with Mantia finishing 22nd and Jonathan Kuck 37th. So with seven of long-track speedskating's 12 events complete, the U.S. is 0-for-Sochi, despite coming in as favorites in several races and popular picks to win at least eight medals.

"I think this was a fantastic U.S. team. There is incredible talent," said Nancy Swider-Peltz, Hansen's coach and a four-time winter Olympian. "This was an incredible team that should have won the medals that were expected, hands down."

"It is a terrible heartbreak," she added. "A lot of things have been thrown at this team in the end."

The campaign has been a catalog of ineptitude and humiliation. The U.S. thought it had an edge on the competition by designing high-tech race suits with the help of a defense contractor and kept them hidden from the competition until the Games. Instead, the joke was on the Americans. The athletes didn't like the feel of the new suits while failing to win medals over the past week, and a last-minute decision was made to change them ahead of Saturday's events.

"I had to deal with a lot of things that I normally would not have to deal with," Davis said. "At World Cup races, you are not trying to figure out what is slow or fast. You go to the line and you skate as hard as you can.

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"The paper doesn't say, 'Because of suit or lack of confidence' or what. It says eighth [in the 1000] and 11th. That is what I have to live with for the rest of my life."

Davis was among the favorites in both the 1000 and 1500, while on the women's side Heather Richardson and Brittany Bowe were ranked first and second in the world in the 1000 but placed only seventh and eighth, respectively.

Talk over the team's poor performance got coach Shimabukuro all riled up. In response to a report that the U.S. team performs far better in events held at altitude, he dismissed the accusation by questioning the claim's legitimacy.

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