A little kindness goes a long way at Olympics

The Olympic ideal played out in real life here over the past week as a small group of Utahns embraced the struggling women's hockey team from Kazakhstan.

When the team showed up in grubby gear for a practice at The Peaks Ice Arena on Feb. 8, Orem's Shannon Arnoldsen and other volunteers couldn't help but notice.

"Sweden gets off the bus with matching berets and Versace outfits," said Matthew Hemmert, a volunteer who supervises team transportation. "Then Kazakhstan gets off in hospital scrubs or sweat pants with holes in them."

The bus driver told Arnoldsen a sobering tale. He had taken the team shopping for souvenirs at a local mall, but the players had returned to the bus after 10 minutes.

He next took them to Wal-Mart. A few players made purchases, but most said the same thing: "Still too expensive."

"Not exactly where you want Olympians to pick up Olympic souvenirs," Hemmert said.

The story gnawed at Arnoldsen, who took three years of Russian at BYU and felt a kinship with the women from this impoverished former Soviet Republic. She went shopping that night in search of souvenirs for the team. She thought about Olympic pins, but wanted the gift to be from Provo. It didn't go well at first.

"We just couldn't afford anything because there's 25 players and coaches," she said.

At the Olympic Spirit store, fittingly, she backed into one of her neighbors in northeast Orem, and told him the story.

Arnoldsen turned the project over to another neighbor, Susan Randall, and returned to work at The Peaks. Before she knew it, Roger Utley and Gordon Brown at the bookstore agreed not to a discount, but to a donation of 25 hooded BYU sweatshirts worth $750. Friends raised $400. The man with the $100 bill arranged for a gift of 25 button-down dress shirts from the Utah Homebuilders Association.

There was more: Randall's daughter created Valentine's Day cards for each team member. A Provo official provided the city's Olympic pins and colorful magazines with beautiful pictures of the area. Children wrote letters of friendship.

Arnoldsen found the players' names on the Internet and personalized the Valentine's cards, then placed $20 in each.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan had lost 7-0 to Canada on Monday. While they lost another 7-0 game Wednesday at The Peaks, Arnoldsen and Hemmert laid out the gifts on each seat of the team bus. Arnoldsen happened upon a young man who had served a two-year LDS church mission in Russia and he agreed to translate her letter to the team:

"We were impressed and inspired by the obstacles you overcame to come to the Olympics," Arnoldsen wrote. "We wanted you to have something to remember your time here."

The first player onto the bus was goalie Natalya Trunova. Her face was blotchy from crying over the team's second lopsided loss. She found Arnoldsen's letter and read it, then began to sob and shake. She went back into the building to bring out her teammates, who were overwhelmed.

"We were very grateful to get the gifts," Trunova said through a translator Friday after making 48 saves in a 4-1 loss to Russia. "We've been grateful for the cheering of the crowds. It made our day to get those gifts, to know there were people happy to see us and have us here."

The team's coach, Alexandr Maltsev, confirmed that the women's program, making its first Olympic appearance, has a limited budget and no corporate sponsors. Trunova, who managed to bring just $30 to the Olympics, mentioned that the team's Olympic uniforms had barely arrived in time.

Arnoldsen's concern for 25 people from the other side of the world struck a chord of international goodwill, said Natalya Yakovchuk, who scored Kazakhstan's only Olympic goal on Friday.

"I'm glad to have this opportunity to thank the citizens of America for the exceedingly warm reception, excellent hospitality, the way they treat our team, which is especially wonderful because we're not known as the best team," Yakovchuk said. "Thank you on behalf of our entire team."

Randall, like Arnoldsen, was uncomfortable with the idea that a reporter knew about the good deed.

"We wanted to extend our friendship because we thought they were young and poor and beat up and needed friends," Randall said. "We have a lot here, so it's kind of nice to share. And we're grateful BYU came through."

"This is what the Olympics are all about," he said. "Shannon is just incredible. She deserves a gold medal."

I know that all who come to the Olympic games have as a dream to win a medal....and after these days of watching some of the Olympic shenanigans, with people bellyaching about the outcomes, people lodging protests, judges perhaps cheating, and some of the Olympians themselves, being very ungracious, its great to read a good, heart warming story...

Here we see a team, poor in money and in things, but rich in their wish to compete...they probably knew they had no chance to medal, but still came in the hopes of at least making a good showing, and competing to their very best ability...

This reminds me of the man from Thailand, who competed in I think cross country skiing, and had no real chance, yet he competed...or the young man from Nepal, who also competed in these winter Olymics, with no real chance of a medal, yet fulfilled a dream to just complete...and he did, coming in I think 82nd out of 83 in his particular sport, which I do not remember...

For all the unfortunate wrangling, and greed, and cheating and poor sportsmanship we always wind up seeing at any given Olympics, a story like this one, and stories of lesser known athletes who compete out of love of sport, these are the stories, which more than the others give a true reflection of what the Olympics should be, rather than what they have become...

Here is some more detail on this story. I read this story yesterday on my lunch and started crying, had to close my office door... This comes from the Deseret News, a SLC newspaper.

PROVO — The women's hockey team from Kazakhstan may have attended the 2002 Winter Games on a shoestring, but they received an outpouring of the Olympic spirit from Utah County residents and the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.

Dominique Moe, 12, Hillcrest, waves two flags the whole time his class sings

Jennifer Grigg, Deseret News

The hospital held a reception on Wednesday at its west lobby and presented gifts from around the valley to the struggling team that came to the Winter Olympics without a corporate sponsor.

Team captain Olga Kryukova described her country as a developing, growing nation. Kazakhstan, just south of Russia, became independent in 1991 after about 70 years as part of the Soviet Union.

Their hardships in attending the Games were only a part of their training, Kryukova said through a translator. One team member came with just $50 for her 17-day stay, hospital spokesman Anton Garrity said.

Each team member received a bag from Brigham Young University filled with gifts, including clothing, CDs of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing in the opening ceremonies to the Olympics, caps knitted by a Provo ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and even a box of green Jell-O. Residents also donated some $3,000 to be shared equally among team members to purchase souvenirs.

Dozens of residents, hospital staff and even a patient hooked to an IV warmly greeted the team. As media and residents' strobe lights flashed, and some hockey members photographed them back.

Patient Melissa Flygare of Orem, hospitalized with pneumonia, climbed out of bed and with her husband, Mike, made her way to the reception hooked to an IV. They wanted to take the opportunity to see the team, her husband said.

A hastily assembled school choir from Timpanogos and Hillcrest elementary schools performed two songs to welcome the team.

Natalya Trunova, 20, is the goalie for the Kazazhstan women's hockey team.

Jennifer Grigg, Deseret News

"We heard about it at the end of school, yesterday," Hillcrest student and choir member Gary Houskeeper said. "It was really fun singing and watching the people talk in Russian," he said.

"It was really cool," chimed in Hillcrest student Steve Price.

"It was a good feeling and a nice experience," added student Tanner Williams.

Luckily, the students already knew their songs and had performed them before.

Team members made personal sacrifices to attend the Games, IHC Administrator Mary Ann Young said. Hospital doctors working with the team became aware of its financial strife — "they came with limited resources to participate in these games," Young said.

As word spread residents pitched in to help the team, she said.

"They may not go home with gold, but they will go home with the hearts of this community," Young said. The hockey team has lost every game it's played, so far.

IHC, a media sponsor of the Games, had each department pick a country to learn about and to use as a theme to decorate around, Young said. Labor and Delivery department had earlier picked Kazakhstan and received a personal visit from the team.

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