the olympics are so addicting! joey cheek won the 500 m speed skating today - not even a sport i particularly like (esp after having to compete with them for ice space in korea, man, those little kids are so fast!!) but he had the cutest smile. :) and a big heart.

"He then announced he would donate his $25,000 gold medal bonus from the United States Olympic Committee to a humanitarian organization, Right to Play. Cheek said he would funnel his money to a program to help refugees in Chad.

"I thought about this for a while," Cheek said. "I won World Sprints and I thought: 'Jeez, I might actually have a shot of doing something great in the Olympics. If I do, I want to make it meaningful.' "

"I learned there's a gold medalist tonight," he said. "And tomorrow there's another gold medalist. So I can either take the time and just gush about how wonderful I feel or use it for something productive.""

what drama at the pairs skating as well! my mom felt so sorry for the chinese with their heartbreaking stories, like their coach who was on the first pairs team in china and learned lifts using photos from newspapers, and got laughed at in their first international competition. the outcome came out well. the gold medal russian team was amazingly beautiful to watch. 

it's also nice to have a sister on the east coast, it's like having your own personal preview. the one for tonight: "OMG U HAVE TO WATCH THE PAIRS"

 
joey cheek, after winning the 500m speed skate (otherwise known as, a mad dash on the ice)