Joey Cheek
A native of Greensboro, NC, Joey Cheek grew up as an inline skater and made the switch to the ice in 1995. Cheek began his ice career as an “Allround” or distance skater but later switched to the shorter sprint distances, where he really began to shine. A bronze medal winner in the 1,000 meter event at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Cheek fulfilled a lifelong dream at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy, where he won gold in the 500 meters and silver in the 1,000 meters. That same season Cheekwon the World Sprint Championships and became the first-ever recipient of US Speedskating’s ‘Eric Heiden Athlete of the Year’ award.
Perhaps Cheek’s most notable effort, however, began off the ice when he made the remarkable gesture of donating $40,000 in winnings to Right To Play, an athlete-driven international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play as a tool to help young people in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. In April, he visited Zambia to see the organization’s work first-hand.
Speaking topics
Coming off of his gold medal winning performance at the Olympics, Joey
used his numerous public speaking appearances to hone himself into one of the strongest professional speakers across the entire sports world, sharing his inspirational and motivational tales of goal setting, overcoming setbacks and achieving Olympic gold. Unwilling to be restricted to sports and motivational speaking, he expanded his topics to include philanthropy and charitable giving. Now, as the founder and operator of his second business venture, Cheek shares how the same principles he used to achieve athletic greatness are serving he and his colleagues in sales and new business development, staff and time management, maximizing business relationships and utilizing new media as a business growth tool.