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Just hours before Olympic gold medalist and outspoken Darfur activist, Joey Cheek, was set to fly to China for the Smoglympics, he received a call from Chinese Embassy official telling him that he couldn’t go, his visa had been denied. The Olympic games are anything but apolitical this time around it seems. The Chinese government offered no explanation and doesn’t necessarily need a reason to deny anyone a visa but this time the reasons to deny 29-year old, Joey Cheek seemed all too obvious.

At the press conference after winning the gold in the 500 meter speedskating in Turin, Italy Joey Cheek announced that he would be donating all $25,000 of his USOC gold and $15,000 silver award money to the Right to Play organization, which is an international humanitarian organization that “uses sport and play as a tool for the development of children and youth in the most disadvantaged areas of the world”, according to the organizations site.

He also challenged his sponsors to match his donations and so far, Jet Set, Roots, Nike and Gap have done so. Cheek admitted that the money wasn’t very much but he has a goal of seeing the program take root in the devastated Darfur region of Sudan where 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since ethnic African tribesmen took up arms in 2003. Joey is also the founder of Team Darfur, a group of 70 athletes who work to raise global awareness of the human-rights violations taking part in the Darfur region of Sudan where China has military, economic and diplomatic ties. Though Joey Cheek was not going to compete in the Olympics he wanted to bring attention the genocide in Darfur, which critics say Beijing abets through its ties to the Sudan government. (WSJ Article)

According to Eddie Pells of the AP - “One of Cheek’s key initiatives was urging the international community to persuade Sudan to observe the ancient tradition of the Olympic truce during the Beijing Games.”

Of the denial of his visa Joey Cheek said –

“I am saddened not to be able to attend the Games. The Olympic Games represent something powerful: that people can come together from around the world and do things that no one thought were possible. However, the denial of my visa is a part of a systemic effort by the Chinese government to coerce and threaten athletes who are speaking out on behalf of the innocent people of Darfur.”

Chris Chase of Yahoo! wrote

“With the Games getting closer (just two days away now), the world seemed ready to forget about all the Chinese issues in order to focus on the Games themselves. Unfortunately, China’s actions make that impossible. In a time when we should be wondering who will light the Olympic cauldron, whether Michael Phelps can break an all-time record and how Liu Xiang will react to the pressure of 1.3 billion of his countrymen hanging on his every step, we’re instead left to discuss the Chinese government’s reluctance to allow any dissension in their country, despite repeated promises that they’d clean up their act when the Olympics came to town.”

According to an AP article, Joey Cheek had not planned on any Team Darfur events but was planning on attending a United Nations Olympic Celebration and some charity events.

“Of course I would have liked to have been there, advocating for a peaceful resolution,” he said. “But we’ll figure something out.”

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