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Home > Olympics > Silver Medalists > Joey Cheek
Joey Cheek
The Olympic Games, or Olympics, is an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C, the modern games started from 1896.The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent atleast one color of the participating country’s national flag.
William Joseph Cheek was born on June 22, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina. His nicknamed is Joey. He is an American speed skater and former inline speed skater. He specializes in the short and middle distances. Cheek's breakthrough was in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. During that tournament he won the bronze medal in the 1,000 meters and he missed the podium in the 1,500 meters by 0.08 seconds. In 2003 he won a bronze medal at the World Single Distance Championships in Berlin in the 1,000 and the 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, Joey Cheek fulfilled his potential when he became world sprint champion. On aggregate he beat Dmitry Dorofeyev and Jan Bos. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, 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. Cheek's time in the first 500m race is an unofficial world record, for the fastest 500m ever at an ice rink at sea level. He went on to win silver in the 1,000 meter race, finishing just behind teammate Shani Davis.
He was elected by his teammates to carry the US flag into the closing ceremonies. Near the end of NBC's, National Broadcasting Company coverage of the closing ceremonies, 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. Joey Cheek will be attending Princeton University in fall 2006.
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