15 February 2006

U.S. Skating Champion Donates Olympic Winnings to Darfur Refugees

Speed skater Joey Cheek gives $25,000 to Sudanese refugees in Chad

 

United States Gold Medal winner Joey Cheek, from Greensboro, North Carolina, holds an American flag as he makes a victory lap during the Winter Olympics men's 500 meter speedskating sprint race at the Oval Lingotto in Turin, Italy, February 13, 2006.

United States Olympian Joey Cheek makes a victory lap in Turin, Italy, February 13, 2006. (© AP Images)

By Helen I. Rouce
Staff Writer

Washington -- U.S. speed skater Joey Cheek, who won the Olympic gold medal February 13 in the 500-meter speedskating event at Torino, Italy, is using his winnings to help African refugees.

Cheek surprised many by announcing that he will donate the $25,000 he will receive from the U.S. Olympic Committee for having won the gold medal to a charitable organization that will use the money to benefit refugees from the Darfur region of western Sudan.

"In the Darfur region of Sudan, there have been tens of thousands killed," he told reporters at the start of his post-race news conference.  "My government labeled it a genocide, and so I will be donating money specifically to a program to help [Sudanese] refugees in Chad, where there are over 60,000 children who have been displaced from their homes."

He called on corporate sponsors of the Olympics to match his donation.

The money will go to the organization Right to Play, which uses sports to advance development, health and peace.  The organization, supported by former Olympic, Paralympic and professional athletes around the world, is directed by famed Norwegian speed skater Johann Olav Koss.

According to a Washington Post report, Cheek as a teenager admired Koss, who started a charitable movement among athletes by donating his winnings from the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, to buy sports equipment for children in the war-torn East African nation of Eritrea.

Cheek said that if Sudan "ever gets stabilized," he hopes to be able to start programs for internally displaced refugees within the country.

Reflecting on his action, as quoted in the Post report, Cheek said: "It's empowering to think of someone other than myself.  What I do is just great fun.  I love what I do; it's a great job.  I've seen the entire world, and I've met amazing friends.  But it's honestly a pretty ridiculous thing: I mean, I skate around on ice in tights.

"So if you keep in perspective, I've trained my whole life for this, but it's not that big a deal.  But because I've skated well, and because I know I have two seconds of microphone time, I have the ability to hopefully raise some awareness and raise some money and maybe, God willing, put some kids on a path that I've been blessed with."

The 500-meter sprint in which Cheek won the gold is the shortest event in Olympic speedskating.  In it, competitors race 1.25 laps, in pairs, around an ice oval, then repeat the race after less than an hour's break.  The fastest combined time is used to determine the medal winners.

The $25,000 cash bonus was awarded under the USOC’s “Operation Gold” program, under which U.S. medalists in the Olympic Games receive $25,000 for a first place finish, $15,000 for second place and $10,000 for third place.