Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Sunday Morning
Interview with Joey Cheek
Aired February 17, 2002 - 08:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The American who helped bring the 15th medal home to U.S. hands in Olympic competition was Joey Cheek. The Greensboro, North Carolina, native won the bronze in the men's 1000 meter speed skating competition. He joins us this morning from Park City, Utah -- bright and early -- Joey.
JOEY CHEEK, U.S. OLYMPIC MEDALIST: Bright and early. Little earlier than I'm used to.
O'BRIEN: We appreciate you getting up early on our behalf. It is now 6:58 out there, as I understand it, doing the math on the air here live. I was able to figure that out myself.
Joey, tell us about your performance? Were you surprised first of all that you were in the medals? I gather you weren't expecting a bronze in this competition.
CHEEK: You know, you certainly hope for the bronze, but the weeks leading into the Olympics I have had kind of a rough go at it. The last several weeks have been real hard for me. The U.S. championships were great. I won three of the distances that I'm competing in these games there. But the last couple of weeks have been kind of a struggle, so I certainly hoped everything would click and it looks like it worked out all right.
O'BRIEN: Tell me about that. I'm always curious the Olympics and training and how you time it so you peak just right. Some of it you just can't predict, can you? It's just the biorhythms or whatever.
CHEEK: Yes. It really is a lot like that. You go through cycles where some days you're skating good, some days you're not. And you try and plan it with training and with tapering that you're going to skate good on the right days, but you really never -- you never know for sure, but you always hope.
O'BRIEN: So there is a little bit of luck there, no matter what you do, no matter how many hours you train, some of it's just pure luck if you're having an on day.
CHEEK: Yes, and I'm actually learning that -- I think it's probably 70 percent hard work and then 30 percent God's good graces. So, you know, even the best skaters can have an off day or a bad day, and it's anybody's game. But for sure, if you don't do the work, if you don't show up with hours under your belt, then you have a hard time.
O'BRIEN: Well tell us, when you were at the starting line there, getting ready for this race, did you feel like you were on it?
CHEEK: You know, I didn't actually feel like - I didn't feel bad, but I was still kind of jittery, you know. I was kind of fighting this back and forth, battling with myself saying, you know, you still got a shot don't give up, and sometimes you know, you always have those doubts creeping in. It was nice to kind of battle some of those demons and come out on top.
O'BRIEN: Well, it makes it more satisfying in a way, doesn't it?
CHEEK: It really does. It really does.
O'BRIEN: Hey, just quickly, before you get away.
CHEEK: Sure.
O'BRIEN: That collision last night, what are your thoughts on that? I thought it was a sad and wonderful in a way Olympic moment, to see, oh no, just you know kind of crawling across the line there and the Australian who was practically driving the Zambone gets the gold medal. It was great.
CHEEK: Yes, you know, short track is a bizarre sport that way.
O'BRIEN: It is bizarre, isn't it?
CHEEK: Yes. Like those guys, several of them are good friends of mine and we had the U.S. Championships same time as them, and that's a sport where it's quite a bit more luck can come into play. You know, the best skater can go out there and things like that happen in that sport, but Apolo is really gracious, and I actually met the Australian today and he was just as cool as can be. So it was a shame, but I think Apolo's day will, for sure, come soon.
O'BRIEN: Oh, he's got some more racing left in him, even with that gash. Just quickly, what's next for you?
CHEEK: What's that?
O'BRIEN: What's next for you?
CHEEK: Oh, thank you sir.
O'BRIEN: No. No. What's next for you? What are you up to next?
CHEEK: Sorry about that.
O'BRIEN: That's all right.
CHEEK: I've got 1,500 meters on Tuesday.
O'BRIEN: All right. CHEEK: The last event of the games. I'm really excited.
O'BRIEN: You feeling good?
CHEEK: I feel great.
O'BRIEN: All right. We wish you well. We'll be watching. Joey Cheek, Bronze medalist.
CHEEK: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: And congratulations to you. We wish you well. Hopefully take home another medal.
CHEEK: Oh, thank you. Hope to see you guys in a couple days.
O'BRIEN: Yes, come back will you? That would be great.
CHEEK: Thanks.
O'BRIEN: Makes you proud, doesn't it? You know, he's got that medal there and nice young medalist there.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and we're going to talking some more about the Olympics in the 10:00 hour, but that time aerial skiing the subject.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
