Focus on America

When America’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes like softball pitcher Jennie Finch and wheelchair track and road racer Cheri Blauwet leave Beijing, each will bring the spirit of the Olympic Movement back to their communities through the U.S. Olympic Committee’s “Team for Tomorrow” fund.

This article is excerpted and reprinted with permission of the U.S. Olympic Committee from Issue 3, Day 2 (Wednesday, August 6, 2008) of the USA Daily newsletter.

When America’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes like softball pitcher Jennie Finch and wheelchair track and road racer Cheri Blauwet leave Beijing, each will bring the spirit of the Olympic Movement back to their communities through the U.S. Olympic Committee’s “Team for Tomorrow” fund. 

Team for Tomorrow is a new humanitarian relief effort through which U.S. athletes will offer assistance and support to people around the world who are in need. As an initial effort of Team for Tomorrow, the USOC donated 1,000 relief tents to survivors of the May 12 earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province that left approximately 5 million people homeless.

But Team for Tomorrow does not stop in China.

“The Olympic Movement is the greatest force for hope and opportunity in our world today,” said USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth. “Team for Tomorrow was initiated by our Olympians and Paralympians as a means to continue spreading the Olympic Ideals of peace, understanding, tolerance and harmony around the world. America’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes have expressed a profound interest in social and civic responsibility. They are looking for ways to make a difference in the world and to give something back.”

Following the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, some athletes will trade breaststrokes for paintbrushes while others will swing hammers instead of baseball bats. Team for Tomorrow is giving U.S. athletes the opportunity to take the ideals of the Olympic Movement – peace, understanding, tolerance and harmony – beyond the playing fields by donating service hours to Habitat for Humanity affiliates in their communities.

Habitat has built more than 250,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1 million people in at least 3,000 communities across the world with safe, decent and affordable shelter.

“Through Team for Tomorrow, the entire U.S. Olympic Movement is coming together to make a difference in the world,” BMX cyclist Donny Robinson said. “I’m proud to be a part of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team and to represent my country, and now, I’m just as proud to be a part of Team for Tomorrow. This humanitarian fund shows just another way the Olympic Movement is making the world a better place.”

Olympic gold medalist Finch, seven-time Paralympic medalist Blauwet and Games newcomer Robinson are three of the 10 Olympians and Paralympians signed on as Athlete Ambassadors for the Team for Tomorrow Fund. Others serving as leaders of the effort are modern pentathlete Eli Bremer, third baseman Crystl Bustos, shooter Corey Cogdell, rower Anna (Mickelson) Cummins, Paralympic swimmer Dave Denniston, diver Nanciliea Foster and triathlete Matt Reed.

“Team for Tomorrow is offering U.S. Olympians and Paralympians a way to stay connected to sport in a meaningful way,” said 2004 Olympic silver medalist Kate Johnson, a representative on the USOC Athletes Advisory Council. “When the Closing Ceremony ends, athletes will find a new significance in what it means to represent our country. Our career as elite athletes may come to an end but our role as Olympians and Paralympians is forever.”

The involvement with Habitat for Humanity and relief tents marks the first steps for the ongoing Team for Tomorrow fund. Additional activities will follow including similar domestic and international relief initiatives for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic teams.