Submitted by shaktinah on Tue, 02/14/2006 - 14:45
On Sunday speed-skater Joey Cheek won gold in the men's 500 meters at the Winter Olympics. Gold medals are usually an admittedly well-deserved excuse to be the center of attention (however briefly). But Joey Cheek chose to turn that attention away from himself towards something greater. "I have always felt if I ever do something big like this I want to be able to give something back," Cheek announced at his winning press conference. "I love what I do, it's great fun, but honestly, it's a pretty ridiculous thing, I skate around in tights. If you keep it in perspective, I've trained my whole life for this but it's not that big a deal. "But because I skated well I have a few seconds of microphone time. And I know how news cycles work. Tomorrow there will be another gold medalist.