March 1,2006 — The Clarion
The real Olympics
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OPINION
Page 5
By David Glovsky
The Dartmouth
(Dartmouth)
(U-WIRE) HANOVER, N.H.
- This Olympic op-ed is not go
ing to be about Bode Miller,
Daron Rahlves, Johnny Weir
(who's hilarious, by the way) or
anyone else who supposedly
"underachieved." None of those
people will be mentioned after
this sentence. Since most of us
are Americans, we assume we're
the best in the world at every
thing we do. For the record,
we're awful at cross-country ski
ing. And the biathlon. And ski
jumping.
I can think of one American
athlete, though, who deserves
even more attention than he has
received, for his success and not
his failure. His name is Joey
Cheek. This week, Joey Cheek
reminded everyone who
watched or read about him of the
impact of sports and the poten
tial for athletes to be role mod
els. After winning the 500-meter
speedskating competition, his
first career gold medal, Cheek
immediately announced he
would donate his $25,000 bonus
to charity. At his press confer
ence, Cheek said, "I always felt
if 1 ever did something like this, I
wanted to be prepared to give
something back."
Cheek's money is going to
the humanitarian organization
Right to Play, an organization
founded by former Olympic gold
medalist and speedskater Johann
Olav Koss. Cheek's contribution
will go directly to programs in
Chad for children who are refu
gees from Darfur Right to Play's
mission is "to improve the lives
of children in the most disadvan
taged areas of the world by us
ing the power of sport and play
for development, health and
peace." Cheek's reasoning was,
"We're so fortunate to be where
we're from, and you know, it's
just a twist of fate. If you're bom
in Zambia, if you're born in
Darfur, you could have the same
skills, the same genetic make-up,
same skills, and you're Just
struggling to survive."
Had Joey Cheek stopped
there, he already would have
qualified as a Mensch in my
book. However, he challenged
his personal sponsors and the
Olympic sponsors to match his
donation. Since Cheek's speech,
the organization has received
over $300,000 in pledges in re
sponse.
To put things in perspec
tive, even the best world-class
speedskaters make little money
compared to other professional
athletes (Cheek made under
$ 100,000 in his best year, the year
he won a bronze medal in Salt
Lake City). Cheek had talked to
Koss ahead of time about doing
"something big," but Koss
wasn't sure what to make of that.
When a reporter called to inform
Koss of the donation, he
"sounded so stunned he had to
repeat the figure to believe it."
"Was it $25,000? That's
amazing," Koss said. "That's to
tally fantastic. He's an Olympic
speedskater. He doesn't make
money. This is absolutely incred
ible." After this initial gift, Cheek
won the silver medal in the
1,000-meter speedskate. I'm sure
you can guess where the $ 15,000
from that event went.
Having never met him be
fore the Olympics, Koss had no
way of knowing that he was the
reason Joey Cheek became a
speedskater. After learning
about Koss' organization. Cheek
began thinking about what he
could do. A few days before the
Olympics, Cheek was able to
meet with Koss, and he let him
know he wanted to help as best
he could. After the 500, Cheek
said, "The things that he has
done for other people has [sic]
been an absolute inspiration for
me. Now I have an opportunity
to do something similar It's my
hope that I can assist some
people and maybe walk in his
large shoes."
Joey Cheek is only 26 years
old. He won a bronze medal four
years ago, but coming into the
Olympics, there was not a great
deal of hype around him (even
though he won the world cham
pionship just one month ago).
Cheek is retiring from
speedskating after the 2006
Olympics to attend college. His
first choice. Harvard, was not
intelligent enough to realize their
luck when they had the chance.
While his early admission appli
cation didn't go over so well in
Cambridge, I'd like to let him
know that we'd be more than
happy to have him up here in
Hanover (I hope the admissions
office wouldn't object too much).
Strangely enough. Cheek
said at his press confercnce that
prior to his race, he had never
been more relaxed in his life. He
knows he's been fortunate in life.
""What 1 do is great fun," he said.
"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, right?"
Maybe he's right, and
maybe the hype and praise we
heap on our athletes is slightly
over the top. But it's difficult to
overstate charity, and for that
reason, Joey Cheek deserves all
the praise in the world. For that
matter, so docs Johann Olav
Koss, the four-time gold medal
ist and the son of two doctors,
who made the events of the last
two weeks possible.
Ohio state senator fights fire with fire
Staff Editorial
The Post (Ohio U.)
Ohio State Sen. Robert F,
Hagan, D-Youngstown, has re
quested support from the Ohio
Senate to enact legislation that
would ban Republicans from
adopting children in Ohio.
Clearly, Hagan's request is
ludicrous, unthinkable, uncon
stitutional and morally wrong.
And that was the point.
Hagan's request is in re
sponse to the proposed legisla
tion that sought to ban homo
sexual, bisexual or transgender
Ohioans from adopting children.
With his outrageous pro
posal, Hagan has created possi-
I’ly the best.
most articulate pro
test to this bill. By employing
such a satirical response, Hagan
illustrates that denying any
group equal rights because of
one characteristic should be un
thinkable and violates an
individual's rights. Denying Re
publicans the right to adopt fol
lows the same irrationality as
denying homosexuals the right
to adopt - both ideas lack cred
ible reason and merely reflect
cultural animosity.
With the thousands of chil
dren in foster care and needing
to be placed in nurturing homes,
it is irresponsible for state legis
lators to prohibit a large sector
of qualified applicants simply
because of their sexual orienta
tion, In doing so, legislators
would inevitably disqualify
many potential loving parents
from adopting children who have
no one else. The stigma against
same-sex couples is influenced
by pseudoscientific claims that
homosexual individuals are un
fit parents and are somehow bio
logically inferior to heterosexu
als. But such studies offer no
verifiable evidence to prove their
claims and instead merely at
tempt to advance a biased
agenda.
Luckily, not all Ohio legisla
tors back the legislation. Prior to
Hagan's proposal, Ohio House
Speaker Jon Husted, R-
Kettering, said "„.we have a lot
of children in need who need
homes, and until all of them are
adopted, I'm not going to restrict
any loving family's opportunity
to adopt and to care for those
children,"
Hagan's satirical proposal
might elicit criticism from his
opponents based on the nature
of the idea, but Hagan has done
all Ohioans a good service. His
proposal is just the proactive
measure needed to force legis
lators pushing religiously moti
vated beliefs to recognize the
fault in their ideals, and that they
themselves could be subject to
the same unwarranted revoca
tion of civil rights given differ
ent circumstances.