Tim Ellsworth

Cheek donates winnings to charity

February 20th, 2006

Speed skater Joey Cheek has donated all of the winnings from his two medals, $40,000 total, to Right To Play, an athlete-driven international humanitarian organization that uses sports to help disadvantaged children.

Cheek won the gold in the 500 meters, which comes with a $25,000 bonus. His silver medal in the 1,000 meters earned Cheek another $15,000.

“I think we’ve had eight or nine companies or individuals match my original $25,000, and it looks like we’re over a quarter of a million dollars donated — and more keeps coming in,” Cheek said in an AP story. “I’m much more proud of that than winning a gold medal.”

10 Responses to “Cheek donates winnings to charity”


  1. Kudos to Cheek for his generosity and to Tim for getting the word out on some “decent” athletes.

  2. Jim Toms says:

    Well, once again we have a selfish athlete who looks for nothing more than a way to get headlines and say “Oh, what a great thing he’s doing!” I, for one, would like to see more athletes like Barry Bonds and Ricky Williams who put their teams above themselves and the “glory” that “doing good” does.

  3. Jeremy Jones says:

    I hope you are not serious Toms.


  4. Sounds like somebody’s been watching the “Colbert Report”.

  5. Jim Toms says:

    Have I ever not been?

  6. Tyler Sink says:

    Jermy and Tom in the octagon. Who would win?

  7. Jim Toms says:

    He’d have no shot. We’re talkin’ NO shot.

  8. Jeremy Jones Cloud says:

    Sounds like fun!

  9. bmorebamma says:

    jim toms you gotta be kiddin , right?. the reason mr.cheek announced that he gave the money is becuse he wanted to bring attention to this as he said in the interview after he won the gold medle becusee, alot of amercians seem to have short attention spans. and the bush people or the amercian media don’t seem to give a damn THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS YOUNG MAN the world could use more people like him kind compassanate, and less people like YOU who want to mininaze this amazing young mans accomplishment so BEFORE YOU GIVE HIM A HARD TIME. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ANOTHER HUMAN BENINGS LIFE. and as i always say no matter what somone does, there will always be a detractor trying to bring them down. jmo

  10. Tim says:

    bmorebamma —

    Settle down. He was being sarcastic.