Willing to Take a Stand: Joey Cheek one of few athletes to speak out on political issues

Putting profits over principle deters many from becoming politically active

By Liz Clarke
The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON — There was clarity in Joey Cheek's athletic calling: Skate in a circle as fast as possible.

As the fastest man in the 500 meters, Cheek won gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics. And after he donated his winnings to a charity that helped children in disadvantaged countries play sports, he was hailed as the Olympic ideal and chosen to carry the U.S. flag in the Closing Ceremonies.

But Cheek soon found out that his impulse to do good outside the Olympic arena was a far murkier proposition.

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Without explanation, Chinese officials revoked Cheek's visa on the eve of his departure for the 2008 Beijing Games, where he had planned to discuss the suffering in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur.

The U.S. Olympic Committee distanced itself from the three-time medalist, noting that Cheek wasn't part of its official delegation. And with the International Olympic Committee silent, Cheek was left to promote his cause from the Washington office of Team Darfur, a coalition of concerned athletes he helped organize in 2007.

Today, Cheek is 30 and will be a junior at Princeton University. He and George Washington University graduate Eleanor Collins, of Modesto, are still together. He is majoring in economics and pursuing a minor in Chinese — finding himself increasingly fascinated by the country that did not welcome him.

Cheek is hardly the first athlete to be celebrated for pushing the boundaries of human performance yet rebuked for pushing matters of conscience. He comes from a long tradition yet represents an increasingly rare breed, given the millions of dollars often at stake in long-term contracts and endorsement deals.

"Sports is a bigger business than ever," says Orin Starn, a cultural anthropologist at Duke University. "And athletes preserve the viability of their brand by not saying anything controversial."

Cheek doesn't regret his effort to advocate higher ideals against the Olympic backdrop. But he is of two minds about what the Beijing Games achieved. He believes they showcased the best of China: the hospitality of its citizens and the efficiency of its government in erecting such breathtaking venues and massive infrastructure. He also believes they revealed the government's intolerance of criticism and the IOC's willingness to capitulate on fundamental principles such as freedom of speech and assembly for fear of offending the host nation and alienating the multinational corporations that bankroll the Games.

As for the achievements of Team Darfur, Cheek doesn't know how to gauge results.

"Is success that we got people to hear more about it? Maybe," he muses. "Is success that there were fewer people killed because of the efforts we made? Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes you feel like the only thing that matters is if you have a billion dollars or a cruise missile."

Cheek was inspired to do something meaningful after winning bronze at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and realizing that an Olympian's moment in the spotlight is brief and that medals, while tremendous honors, don't change anyone's life.

So he vowed to find a way to leverage that moment to achieve something lasting if he were to win a medal at the 2006 Games.

Athletes arose in past

In the 1960s and '70s, some activist athletes pioneered change. Bill Russell spoke against racism in basketball; Curt Flood's lawsuit against Major League Baseball led to free agency; and Billie Jean King crusaded for equal pay for women in tennis.

Others used their fame to champion social and political causes — most notably, Muhammad Ali, who opposed the Vietnam War, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who raised clenched fists in salute of civil rights atop the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.