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2006 Winter Olympics

Turn to this Cheek, he's our very best

By GARY SHELTON
Published February 26, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Put my flag in his hands.

Put his face on my cereal box.

Put his charity in my heart.

The athletes of a nation line up behind Joey Cheek tonight. The rest of us should, too. He is the best of them, and the best of us, and we are all poorer if we do not fall in step.

He is the memory of these Games, the conscience and the character. If you still believe in athletes, if you still believe in the Olympics, if you still believe that sports can serve a greater good than a scoreboard, then he is everything we should admire. He is Joey Cheek, great American, and we should embrace his legacy.

By profession, Cheek is a speed skater. By definition, he is a success. By transformation, he is a humanitarian.

Perhaps you remember Cheek. He won a gold medal and a silver in these Olympics, a nice enough achievement to put on one's resume. Thankfully, his story gets even better from there.

For Cheek, the medals are less important than the mettle. He is no longer an athlete. He is an ambassador. He is no longer a player. He is a paragon. Over the past two weeks, Cheek's competitiveness has given way to his compassion. That is the way we should remember this athlete. That is the way more of them should strive to be remembered.

By now perhaps you have heard Cheek's story. He is a man driven to do more, to be more. The $25,000 that came from the U.S. Olympic Committee along with his gold medal? He immediately gave that to help displaced children from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. The $15,000 he won with his silver? He donated that, too.

In the language of the Olympics, it was a personal best.

"It is imperative for myself or anyone else who reaches a pinnacle to reach out a hand and help someone else out," Cheek said.

How simple. How generous. How wonderful.

This is why sports matter, and this is why it is important to know what kind of person is in the match rather than what kind of performer. Athletes such as Cheek have the ability to change lives. Athletes such as Cheek feel the responsibly to open whatever doors are possible.

Cheek will be the flag-bearer in tonight's Closing Ceremony. It's a shame he didn't have more competition. The U.S. team has been a collection of forgettable boors and whiners, from Bode Miller to Chad Hedrick to Mike Modano to Shani Davis.

Thank heaven for Cheek, then. Thank goodness for open eyes and a willing conscience and a huge heart.

It can be an insular world, sports. Cheek admits that being an athlete is a selfish endeavor, a morning-to-night pursuit of fast times, strong finishes and rich endorsements. Speed skating, in particular, fosters a man-against-the-world attitude that has become common.

A few years ago, Cheek admits, he didn't know where Darfur was. The more he traveled, however, the more he heard about the problems in Sudan. The numbers staggered him. More than 180,000 killed, the numbers say. More than 2-million displaced.

"The government has basically sponsored militias to slaughter an ethnic minority," Cheek said. "I found it odd that it was such a big story overseas, and I came home and rarely did I see anything. Our State Department declared a genocide. I found it amazing that there could be such an enormous thing - genocide; that word conjures up Holocaust - a hundred thousand people killed by a government and no one even knew about it."

He could have cursed the darkness. He could have done a little, and that would have been better than most. Instead, he has raised his voice. He has given his winnings, every penny, to make a difference.

"He has advanced the cause of children much further than eyes can see," said Johann Koss, the former Dutch speed skater who heads Right to Play, a charity involved with helping children with sports and other humanitarian projects. "Joey has shown us that going round and round in circles can lead somewhere."

What can one man do? Consider those marching behind Cheek. Before these Olympics, Koss said that Right to Play averaged 12,000 to 13,000 hits per day on its Web site, righttoplay.com. Immediately after Cheek donated his first check, that number soared above 90,000. It has averaged 50,000 since.

The donations have soared, too. As of Saturday evening, matching contributions had totaled $392,996. The USOC has matched Cheek's $40,000. And Nike. And other sponsors. A lot of help for a lot of children.

"If you want to create a healthier and safer world," Koss said, "you have to give (children) the basic principles of life. You have to give them these types of opportunities. If not, there are too many evil forces out there who want to recruit them."

Being an Olympic success has a short shelf life in the consciousness of the sports fan. Cheek knows that, too. This is his time. And while the world is paying attention, he wants to get his message across.

"I can either take the time and gush about how wonderful I feel," he said last week. "Or I can use it for something productive. It's honestly a pretty ridiculous thing. I mean, I skate around the ice on tights, right?

"But because I've skated well, and because I have a few seconds of microphone time, I have the ability to hopefully raise some awareness. To raise some money. And hopefully, God willing, to put some kids on a path that I've been blessed with."

Next month, Cheek will travel to Zambia to help raise HIV/AIDS awareness. There will be other trips. Eventually, he would like to go to Darfur.

First, though, there is a matter of carrying his nation's flag through a stadium.

When you see it, be proud.

[Last modified February 26, 2006, 01:50:15]