Cheek speaks for peace

NFL quarterback Michael Vick pleads guilty to running a brutal and illegal dogfighting ring.

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleads guilty to felony gambling charges.

Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s home run record under a cloud of suspicion.

Olympic speedskating gold medalist Joey Cheek stands alone in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington trying to end a genocide.

Or didn’t you notice?

On July 26, the same hot afternoon Vick lied about his involvement in dogfighting outside a Virginia courtroom, Cheek rang the doorbell of the Chinese Embassy.

He was delivering a petition with 42,000 signatures, asking China to do something about the slaughter of thousands by Sudanese militias.

With the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing 11 months away, Cheek knew the timing was right. Between 200,000 and 450,000 villagers have been murdered in the Darfur region of Sudan and in neighboring Chad. Thousands more have been beaten and raped.

Cheek went to the Chinese because their government is Sudan’s primary diplomatic sponsor, and its largest weapons provider and trade partner.

With so much at stake, that’s why the mild-mannered North Carolina native waited stoically for 35 minutes in the Washington heat until the Embassy doors opened.

“The emissaries said, ‘China is working behind the scenes and we’ve done some things already, and this is an internal issue. We hope you won’t politicize the Olympics,’ ” Cheek said.

Cheek replied the Darfur issue dovetails with the Olympic ideal – protecting women and children and promoting peace. He asked if he could take an international group of athletes from China, Europe, North America and Africa to Darfur and show the world that this can be resolved.

“He didn’t shoot it down,” Cheek said. “He said it was an interesting idea.”

Cheek, who carried the U.S. flag at the closing ceremony of the Torino Winter Olympics last year, knows the Olympic charter says the games should be about sport, not politics.

“There’s nothing that goes further against that charter than where you have millions of people who have been driven out of their homes by their own government and been gunned down by helicopter ships and armed groups,” he said.