Turin – While the Olympic flame is burning, Joey Cheek figures Americans want to gobble up stories tinged in Hallmark flair, or as he puts it, “chocolates and butterflies and all that.”
The long tracker delivered the sweet goods Monday night.
Just after sunset, Cheek scrambled and scraped once around the oval in less than 35 seconds – the only skater all night to bust that barrier. In his second heat, he did it again, this time in 34.94 seconds. He clinched gold and a $25,000 bonus from the U.S. Olympic Committee – a prize all American gold-medal winners collect.
The money stayed in his pocket about 20 minutes. At a postrace news conference, Cheek revealed he was donating the fat check to young refugees of the Darfur region who have been displaced by the genocide there.
It was a grand gesture, and a wake-up call for other Americans to help the cause, Cheek said. He learned about the massive death toll in that part of Africa while traveling in Europe a year ago on the World Cup long track tour.
“I couldn’t believe that many tens of thousands of people were being slaughtered,” he said. “I had no idea. I hadn’t even heard of it.”
So far 3 million people have been displaced by the war into refugee camps, and about 250,000 of them have moved into Chad. That’s where Cheek is aiming his bucks. He donated to Right to Play, a charity founded by Olympic gold-medal speedskater Johann Olav Koss of Norway.
It will help build playgrounds.
Cheek was all business when he talked about the troubles in Africa, but he was almost giggling before his race. In his room Monday morning, he relaxed by dialing up a movie about Bo and Luke Duke, the wild boys of Hazzard County, Ga. Before the starter’s gun fired, the movie came to Cheek’s mind.
“I kind of laughed,” Cheek said. “I thought, ‘I was watching “The Dukes of Hazzard” before a race.”‘
But it was something of a racing tactic, too. After the Salt Lake Games, where he won bronze in the 1,000 meters, Cheek realized he needed to have some fun in his sport.
“I was a wreck (in 2002),” said Cheek, the reigning world sprint champion in long track.
The new calmness also worked on the ice, where his feelings helped fuel his world view.
“I love what I do. I love it,” Cheek said. “But you have to keep it in perspective. I skate in circles.”
