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I am very disappointed by Beijing’s decision to revoke the visa of 2006 Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek, a move that will effectively bar him from attending this year’s games. Mr. Cheek is the co-founder of Team Darfur, an organization that draws attention to the plight of children in the Darfur region of Sudan, and he was the U.S. flag bearer at the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Turin Olympics. Today’s news, together with reports that Beijing will also bar Team Darfur’s other co-founder, Brad Greiner, is not in keeping with China’s pledge to hold an open games. Significantly, Team...

TURIN, Italy -- Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis represent the sound and fury, not to mention the general goofiness that engulfed the U.S. men's long track speedskating team during the Winter Olympics. Joey Cheek remains an island of calmness, sanity and, not least of all, an extremely generous nature. He is not the only skater who kept his wits about him. But maybe more than any athlete here, Cheek made the most of his moments. He seems to embrace the quaint notion of the Olympic spirit that existed before the overselling of underachievers and other forms of crass commercialism grabbed...

Olympic champion Cheek donates prize money to DarfurTURIN, Italy (AFP) - US speedskater Joey Cheek credited his decision to donate any prize money from a Winter Olympic gold medal to a Sudanese relief project with helping him capture the 500m title Monday. Cheek will donate the 25,000 dollars he will receive from the US Olympic Committee for his victory to "Right to Play", an athlete-driven charity organization, with the money earmarked for the battle-ravaged Darfur region. "I knew if I ever did something like this, I wanted to be able to give something back," Cheek said. "The best way I...