Posted by Dave on 02/14/06 at 10:12:18 am
Categories: Sports Ravings, Genocide in Darfur

This is wonderful. I wish more athletes thought, and acted, like this:

US speedskater Joey Cheek credited his decision to donate any prize money from a Winter Olympic gold medal to a Sudanese relief project with helping him capture the 500m title Monday.

Cheek will donate the 25,000 dollars he will receive from the US Olympic Committee for his victory to "Right to Play", an athlete-driven charity organization, with the money earmarked for the battle-ravaged Darfur region.

"I knew if I ever did something like this, I wanted to be able to give something back," Cheek said. "The best way I can say thanks is to donate my money to help somebody else."

Cheek, who will ask each of his handful of sponsors to donate money as well, skated the two best 500m races of his career to win gold in a combined time of 1:09.76, beating runner-up Dmitry Dorofeyev by .65 of a second.

Cheek was a surprise winner last night in the 500m, with his better race (the 1000m) still to come.

I am often critical of things like the Olympics for their extreme commercialization. They are getting further and further away from the pure amature nature of the Olympics. Yet the athletes are still different. While they now receive sponsors and such, very few of them have significant money. They are just getting by like the rest of us. Yet Joey Cheek is willing to take that money and "help somebody else."

Congratulations Joey - you just made me like you a lot more.

Listen to the NPR story for more.

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