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Joey Cheek
Personal information
Full name	William Joseph N. Cheek
Born	June 22, 1979 (age 45); Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.
Alma mater	Princeton University
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight	174 lb (79 kg)
Spouse	Tamara Jenkins (date missing)
Children	1
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Speed skating
Retired	2006
Medal record
Men's speed skating
Representing the United States
Olympic Games
World Sprint Championships
World Single Distance Championships

William Joseph Cheek (born June 22, 1979) is an American former speed skater and inline speed skater. He specialized in the short and middle distances and won Olympic gold in 2006. As of 2024,^[update] he is the Executive Vice President of Entrepreneurship for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce^[2]

Accomplishments

Cheek's breakthrough was in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he won the bronze medal in the 1,000 meters.

In 2003 he won a bronze medal at the World Single Distance Championships in Berlin in the 1,000- and 1,500-meter events. Both distances at that tournament were won by Dutch speed skater Erben Wennemars. In 2005, Cheek made the podium for the first time in the World Sprint Championships, again behind Wennemars.

On January 22, 2006, in Heerenveen, Cheek became world sprint champion. On aggregate he beat Dmitry Dorofeyev of Russia and Jan Bos of the Netherlands.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Cheek won the men's 500-meter event in dominating style, recording a two-run total time of 1:09.76. That time was 0.65 seconds faster than runner-up Dorofeyev, and Cheek was the only competitor to break the 35-second mark in the competition, doing so in both of his runs (34.82 and 34.94). He went on to win silver in the 1,000-meter race, finishing just behind teammate Shani Davis.^[3]

Cheek was elected by his teammates to carry the US flag into the closing ceremonies.^[4] Near the end of NBC's coverage of the event, commentator Bob Costas noted that Cheek's application to Harvard University had not been accepted and lobbied the Dean of Admissions to reconsider the decision. Cheek has since graduated from Princeton University. At Princeton, Cheek was a member of the Ivy Club

Cheek planned to attend the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in support of athletes on Team Darfur. His visa was revoked by the Chinese embassy hours before he intended to leave for China.^[5]

Personal life

Joey Cheek was born on June 22, 1979, in Greensboro, North Carolina. He picked up speed skating after meeting and watching neighborhood friend Bryan Anderson skate around the neighborhood training for Nationals. After years of skating with Bryan, his brother, and other Piedmont skaters, he switched to ice speed skating. He did this by attending a "from wheels to ice" class in Alaska.

Cheek attended James B. Dudley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, and graduated from Princeton University as a member of the class of 2011, where he studied economics and the Chinese language.^[6]

Prior to 2019, he was a media entrepreneur.^[7]

Philanthropy

Cheek is the co-founder and president of Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes committed to raising awareness about and bringing an end to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

At a press conference after the Olympic 500-meter race, Cheek said that he decided to donate his USOC gold medal bonus ($25,000) to Right to Play, an athlete-driven international humanitarian organization formed by former Olympic champion Johann Olav Koss of Norway. Cheek challenged others to make similar pledges to the organization. He subsequently donated his prize money from the 1,000-meter race ($15,000) to the same organization.

Since his donation others have joined in and over $390,000 has been contributed to this cause.^[8]

Event	Result	Date	Location
Personal records
Men's speed skating
500 m	34.66	2001-12-19	Salt Lake City, Utah
1000 m	1:07.29	2001-12-18	Salt Lake City, Utah
1500 m	1:44.98	2004-12-21	Salt Lake City, Utah
3000 m	3:54.76	1999-11-26	Calgary, Canada
5000 m	6:42.57	1999-11-28	Calgary, Canada
10000 m	14:13.81	2000-01-16	Calgary, Canada

References

^ ^a ^b McLaughlin, Nancy (23 October 2023). "Return of the native: Find out why Joey Cheek is here to help Greensboro 'win'". greensboro.com. Retrieved 14 December 2024. When the job was posted, Cheek had already returned to Greensboro two years earlier with his wife, Tamara Jenkins, an Olympian in kayak doubles at the 2000 Sydney games; [his infant son]; and the family dog. The NBC Olympics analyst had been living in Denver and working for a venture capital company at the start of the pandemic lockdown in 2020. By that July, they had decided to go on a month-long road trip to visit family.
^ "Staff Directory". Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 14 December 2024. Joey Cheek Executive Vice President, Entrepreneurship
^ "Joey Cheek - SpeedSkatingStats.com". Retrieved 15 October 2016.
^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Joey Cheek". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
^ "HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. And World News". HuffPost.
^ "USATODAY.com - U.S. speedskater Cheek charitable beyond years". USA Today. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
^ Savelkouls, Jeroen (28 January 2014). "Joey Cheek". Speed Skating Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 23 August 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2024. Nowadays, the former speed skater is the owner of Dailyhouse.com, an online sports news agency that he set up in 2012. In interview with Business Insider a few years ago Cheek stated that his fascination with the media started at his first Olympics, where he was impressed huge press center that to him resembled a trading floor. "I realize now that was the dawn of this sort of entrepreneurial ambition that made me want to go into media. I love the idea that you're creating something. It's not a physical thing necessarily, but you've got this sort of factory, so maybe one day, god willing if I work my tail off, I can have a little information factory of my own."
^ Duluth Superior Sports ^{[dead link‍]}