2006 SportsMan, SportsWoman, Paralympian
and Team of the Year Announcement
Joey Cheek, Hannah Teter, Jessica Long, and
U.S. Men's Curling Team Selected to Receive
U.S. Olympic Committee Awards
for 2006 Accomplishments
Long-track speedskater Joey Cheek (speedskating,
2002, '06), snowboarder Hannah Teter
(skiing, 2006), Paralympic swimmer Jessica
Long (swimming, 2004), and the U.S. Men’s
Curling Team have been selected as the 2006
United States Olympic Committee (USOC)
SportsMan, SportsWoman, Paralympian and Team
of the Year, respectively. All 2006 winners
are first
time recipients of the awards.
"These prestigious awards recognize the
outstanding contributions these athletes
have made to Olympic and Paralympic sport as
well as the positive example they have set
for all Americans,” said USOC Chief
Executive Officer Jim Scherr. “Each of our
winners exemplifies great sportsmanship and
strength of character both on and off the
field, and all are worthy additions to the
distinguished list of past recipients."
Joey
Cheek skated into the spotlight at the 2006
Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. Cheek
won the gold medal in the 500-meter
individual long track, with the largest
margin of victory in more than 50 years, and
the silver medal in the 1000-meter
individual long track events. In addition to
his athletic
achievements, Cheek’s performance off the
ice was also a key component to what secured
his selection as SportsMan of the Year.
During the Games in Torino, Cheek announced
that he was giving $40,000 in winnings to
Right to Play for a refugee effort for
children in Darfur, Sudan. His philanthropy
brought him national respect and recognition
throughout 2006. To date he has
been honored as U.S. Speedskating’s Athlete
of the Year, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most
Influential People and one of Ten Young
Outstanding Americans presented by the
Jaycees. He also won the 2006 Olympic
Spirit Award Delivered by DHL and National
Sportsmanship Award, along with
being named as the first recipient of the
Heisman Humanitarian Award.
Snowboarding
was one of the most popular events at the
Olympic Winter Games in Torino, and Hannah
Teter’s gold medal-winning performance in
the halfpipe will be a memory for years to
come. Teter's gold medal run included a
frontside 540 melon, method air, frontside
900 stalefish, indy air, frontside 360 with
a frontside grab and a switch Cab 540
stalefish. In 2006 on her way to Torino,
Teter also won two Grand Prix contests and
took second at another; the Grand Prix is
the premier snowboard competition series in
the nation. She also won the 2006 World Cup.
In only four years as a professional, Teter
has won every major halfpipe competition in
the world with the exception of the U.S.
Open. Prior to the Olympics, Hannah made her
big screen debut in First Descent, a
Hollywood- released film documenting the
rise of snowboarding
through the eyes of riders. Raised in a
family with three snowboarding brothers,
Hannah started snowboarding at age 8.
Paralympian
swimmer Jessica Long had a phenomenal year
with a long list of impressive
accomplishments. She set five world records
and earned nine
gold medals at the 2006 International
Paralympic Committee Swimming World
Championships in Durban, South Africa in
December. Her gold medal
performances were in freestyle relay (world
record), 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter
freestyle (world record), 100-meter fly
(world record), IM relay, 100-meter
breaststroke, 200-meter IM (world record),
400-meter freestyle (world record), and
50-meter freestyle. She also set three world
records at the 2006 U.S. Paralympic National
Championships in August; two world records
at the GTAC Open in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in
May; two world records at the Belgian Open
in Antwerp, Belgium in May; and four world
records at the Spring Can-Am in London,
Ontario, in April. She currently holds world
records in 12 events, one as part of a
relay. She is Swimming World’s 2006 Disabled
Swimmer of the Year and was named a finalist
for the Women’s Sports Foundation’s
Sportswoman of the Year. Jessica was born in
Siberia and was adopted from a Russian
orphanage at 13 months. Because of lower leg
anomalies, her legs were amputated when she
was 18 months old. She burst onto the
international stage at the 2004 Paralympic
Games at age 12 with three gold medals and
as the youngest athlete on the U.S.
Paralympic Team.
The U.S. Mern's Curling team also slid into
the spotlight during the 2006 Olympic Winter
Games with its best finish ever, securing
the bronze medal and the first Olympic medal
ever for U.S. curling. Team members Pete
Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.), Shawn Rojeski
(Chisholm, Minn.), Joe Polo (Cass Lake,
Minn.), John Shuster (Chisholm, Minn.), and
Scott Baird ’s (Bemidji, Minn.) performance
capped a year of notable finishes including
gold at the 2006 U.S. National
Championships, fourth at the 2006 World
Curling Championships, quarterfinalist at
the World Curling Tour Players’
Championship, gold at the Korbel Cashspiel
(World Curling Tour) and silver
at the Strauss Crown of Curling (World
Curling Tour). Skip Pete Fenson began
curling at age 13 and has competed in five
world championships. Vice skip
Shawn Rojeski began at age 8 and is a
three-time national champion. Joe Polo plays
second position and was named to the
All-Star team at the 2004
Junior National Championships. John Shuster
began curling in high school and won his
first men’s national title in 2003 followed
by the junior men’s
title in 2004. Scott Baird is a four-time
national champion, has been curling since
age 10, and holds the honor of being the
oldest athlete at the 2006
Olympic Winter Games at age 55.
While Teter is the first snowboarder to be
recognized as SportsMan or SportsWoman of
the Year, Cheek joins two other speedskating
notables, Eric Heiden (1977, 1979, and 1980)
and Dan Jansen (1994), as SportsMan of the
Year. Long’s distinction as Paralympian of
the Year is the second time in three years
that a swimmer has been recognized (Erin
Popovich, 2004). 2006 marks the first time
U.S. Curling has received Team of the Year
accolades.
The USOC SportsMan and SportsWoman of the
Year awards have been presented annually
since 1974 to the top overall male and
female athlete from within the USOC member
organizations. The team award was added in
1996 and the Paralympian of the Year was
awarded for the first time in 2004. Winners
are selected from the individual female and
male athlete of the year and team of the
year nominations of the USOC and National
Governing Bodies for the Olympic, Pan
American, Affiliated and Disabled Sports
Organizations within the U.S. Olympic
Movement.