TONIGHT

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• Team Darfur
• "Activist Cheek denied entry to China"
• "Kept from Beijing, Team Darfur's Joey Cheek fights on"

E-mail a friend

Olympian discusses the role of athletes in political and social affairs and how those who have wanted to speak about Darfur have been muzzled. (2:16)
 

Full Interview. (10:02)
 

Tavis: Joey Cheek is an Olympic gold medalist and the co-founder and president of Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes raising awareness about the ongoing genocide in Sudan. "Time" magazine named him one of their 100 people who shape our world. He joins us tonight from Washington. Joey Cheek, nice to have you on the program.

Joey Cheek: Thanks for having me, Tavis.

Tavis: You enjoying the games so far?

Cheek: I actually am. I'm of course a huge fan of the Olympics, and having been in two myself, I think I have a deep understanding of some of the sacrifices these athletes have made.

Tavis: Let me start by asking what your plans were, had you been able to get in - inside the country, that is. What were you planning to do once you arrived? What was the goal?

Cheek: Well, Team Darfur has more than 400 athletes around the world, but we have 72 that are competing in Beijing, and I felt as co-founder and president of that organization, there was a role for supporting those athletes in whatever position that may be - and it may very small; it may be large. So I hoped to be there to support any athletes if they were to need it.

And the other role is as a former Olympian and Olympic champion, there are a number of opportunities for us to engage in forum discussions and panel discussions, in meetings with U.N. officials and with IOC members, and with the media as well. And I had hoped to spend my time talking about the issue of Darfur and why I think the Olympics and Olympism addresses that issue.

Tavis: So take me back to 24 hours before you're set to leave to head to China.

Cheek: Right. Well, I had received a visa a month before - a little more than a month, actually. And within 24 hours of my flight's scheduled departure - actually, I guess about 18 hours - I got a call from the embassy saying that my visa had been revoked. And when I asked why, they told me that they weren't required to give any reason, and there was really no one else I could speak with, and no real recourse. So that was how I found out.

Tavis: At that point, strategically, what do you do?

Cheek: Well, there was little we could do in terms of - at that exact moment, because it was after business hours, everything was closed. But we put in a call to State Department, to some friends who'd worked on this issue with us before, and of course we notified some people.

I was supposed to be meeting with several media outlets in China when I arrived, and so we had to contact them and let them know that I obviously wasn't going to be there, and then, of course, the story got picked up.

Tavis: I'm not asking this question, obviously, out of any naïveté, but just curious as to what your thoughts are about why, in fact, that visa was revoked. What do you make of that?

Cheek: Right. Well, I think it's pretty obvious. I've been very clear that I believe that one, the Olympics is a great forum for discussing human rights, and that it's about more than just sport, as it's outlined in its Olympic charter. I think you can do that respectfully and within the rules that have been laid out by the IOC.

But I'm certain that over the last two years, I've been very clear also that there's a very close tie with what Sudan has been able to do, the Sudanese government has been able to do in Darfur and China's financial involvement in the region.

Tavis: What do you make of folk, or how do you respond to people who say that of all people, Joey Cheek, as a gold medalist in the Olympics, ought to know better than to mix Olympics and politics? How do you respond to that?

Cheek: Well, that's actually funny - in 2006, when I won the gold medal, I made a donation - the medal bonus that we receive from the U.S. Olympic Committee, I donated that to a group that works with refugee children from Darfur. And at that time, I spoke out very strongly about what was happening and the need for the international community to protect them.

A year after that, the international community passed a resolution at the U.N. calling for the largest peacekeeping force to be deployed, and it never was deployed because of Sudan's obstructing it. But I've spent the entire two years since those Games talking about why my Olympic experience drew me to talk about this issue, and we reach out to athletes around the world, and it seems to resonate with them as well.

So it's interesting - at some point, you talk about the Olympics being a place where you can come together about our common humanity and about conflict resolution - all things mentioned in the Olympic charter - and yet if you actually live it, now you're talking politics and now that's not allowed. So there seems to be a disconnect between the values that we're espousing and how the Olympics are actually being conducted right now.

Tavis: How did Joey Cheek become so passionate about this particular issue in the first place?

Cheek: I've spent a lot of time traveling overseas competing, and for 10 years my eyes were slowly opened to the fact that there are a lot of places in the world that desperately need our help, and in fact if it weren't for us being a leader on so many issues, there are many people who would continue to suffer and be killed all over the world.

And this issue struck me by how many people were suffering compared to how little coverage there was in the U.S., especially at the time. So I started off - providence, I guess - talking about the issue, and once I got to travel close to the region and met refugees, then you realize you know what? We really are the only thing standing between these people and having their lives taken from them.

Tavis: And by "we" I take it you mean the U.S. of A.

Cheek: I do. Of course there's been a number of nations who've been great on this issue, but I think Darfur is one of the few things that around the world people can look at and say, "If it weren't for the U.S. pushing this within the United Nations, I don't think this issue would have ever come up for Security Council resolution.

I think that we've been a great leader on this issue and a number of African issues as well. It's not always publicized, but I think that we are doing well with this.

Tavis: Speaking of the USA, I'm sure you know by now that President Bush was asked about you specifically in a conversation with Bob Costas on NBC from Beijing while the president was there. What do you make of what he had to say? And moreover - I should say beyond what he said to say about you, what's your sense of how this issue is being handled by the U.S. right about now?

Cheek: Well, that statement in particular, he said that he had brought that message, and the message that we had hoped to convey, to President Hu Jintao of China. That's certainly a meeting I would never have been able to get on my own had I been over in China at the Games. And so in that sense, we're very pleased that he would bring that message.

That's really the whole point of going into these Beijing Games. We thought that China could play a greater role and be a leader in helping the people in Darfur, since they really are such a tight economic partner with Sudan. So that was great.

We've had enormous outpouring of support from Republicans and Democrats alike, supporting both me and my efforts to get to China but also the work that we're doing on Darfur. So this seems to be an issue that politicians of both stripes are really willing to stand behind.

Tavis: At the moment, you think the USA is doing everything that we can be doing or ought to be doing on the Darfur issue?

Cheek: I certainly think there's more we can do. I know that we provide huge amounts of aid, which is absolutely necessary, but there are so many issues, I am certain that at times it's hard to keep it at the forefront. But I think when we look at the sheer numbers of people that are in peril there right now and have been for a number of years, and the number of people who are still dying, I think this is one of the important global issues that gets pushed under the rug a bit.

Tavis: I'm sure in some ways it has been rather surreal, but assess for me how you think the media, what do you make of how the media covered your story - that is, the story of your being denied entrance.

Cheek: Well, there's been enormous press about this issue. I think it speaks more to the idea that a former Olympic champion, someone who, again, two years ago, everyone was saying, within the IOC and many people within the international community, were saying that I represented the Olympic ideals.

And obviously I was not allowed to come in as a spectator to the second Olympics - or to this Olympics now, after retiring from sport. And so I understand that the media likes to pick up that sort of story, but I think what's more important, of course, is the issue that athletes who want to be involved and speak out about this issue have certainly been threatened and muzzled. And I think that that issue needs to be talked about, and I think that the media picked up on that issue, as well.

Tavis: What do you make of the fact, to your point now about athletes engaging themselves in this issues, let me ask a two-part question - whether or not there are athletes today who are just altogether too timid. When you go back just a few decades, and you've got, like, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, you've got Muhammad Ali - you can run the gamut of athletes in the past, a long list of them who've been unafraid to talk about issues publicly.

What's your sense, broadly, of whether or not athletes take the opportunity, the platform they have these days, the popularity they have, to raise important issues about humanity?

Cheek: Right. Well, I don't think that - I don't fault athletes who don't choose to speak out on this issue. I know that most of us - all of us, we go there first to be competitors and to compete our best. But I think there's still room - you can still be a competitor. I think you can still fit within the rules of what the IOC has laid out and still be able to address these issues that ultimately I think are at the heart of what the Olympics were created for.

And I would love to see more athletes taking a role. I certainly don't fault those who are not comfortable in that position, but I think that as athletes and as people who are in the international spotlight, we have a chance to reach people that otherwise we might never reach, and I think that great power brings a certain amount of responsibility.

Tavis: And finally, in your personal life, what's happening these days with regard to - you back in school?

Cheek: I'm back in school, I'm about to start my sophomore year at Princeton University, so I'm excited about that, although it's a whole different world, being a 29-year-old sophomore.

Tavis: I don't know what you're majoring in, let me guess - you're doing something at the Woodrow Wilson International Affairs school?

Cheek: Well actually, you don't really apply to Woodrow Wilson until you finish most of your sophomore year, so I'll let you know. If you ever have me back again, we'll let you know if I ended up going to Woodrow Wilson school.

Tavis: (Laughs) I'm sure I'll have you back again, and I'm sure you'll be doing something with the Woodrow Wilson school. Knowing you, Joey, maybe teaching.

Cheek: Oh, I think that would be a poor decision on their part, (laughter) but I certainly appreciate the nod of encouragement.

Tavis: Joey, nice to have you on. Thanks for your work in this issue, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

Cheek: Thank you, Tavis.