Olympic Athletes petition for truce in Darfur

On Tuesday, a petition signed by 130 former and current Olympic athletes and hopefuls was delivered to a host of world leaders, calling on them to push Sudan to adopt an "Olympic Truce" in Darfur.

The effort was spearheaded by Team Darfur founder and Olympic gold-medalist Joey Cheek. "My obligation, my opportunity, as long as I have a spotlight, is to be able to help those people who cannot help themselves," he said. Some readers may remember Cheek as the speedskater who brought prominence to the genocide in Darfur by donating his medal prize bonus to the people of Darfur after skating to a gold medal in the 2006 Torino Games.

"While I was competing in Torino, it was most likely that people died. People were going to die in their homes, people were driven from their homes and left for dead. And that notion offended me.

"Two and half years later, we're coming up to another Olympic games, and we're still talking about this.''

The Olympic Truce is a tradition dating back to the original Greek games--calling off hostilities between warring states to facilitate the peaceful travel of athletes to the games. Cheek hopes this petition may push the Sudanese government to adopt a ceasefire for the duration of the Olympic Games in the spirit of this tradition.

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