New Year’s Day is a time for new beginnings… and ambitious resolutions that may or may not be brushed aside by the end of the month. 

But at Chicago 2016, the coming year represents the final leg of campaign that’s been in the works for several years.  With just nine months until the final decision in Copenhagen, we’re not exactly looking for new beginnings.

On the other hand, I suppose we’re always up for a few ambitious resolutions…

(1)    Give the Bid Book a going-away party to remember.  After years of developing the plan for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we will send the Chicago 2016 Bid Book to the International Olympic Committee on February 12, 2009. We’ve put a lot of work into this book – just take a look at my previous posts – and I promise the end product is something to celebrate. The book is an amazing reflection of the City of Chicago and its residents, and it is more than deserving of a big send-off.

(2)    Be the best host we can be. The IOC Evaluation Commission is coming to Chicago the first week in April, and it’s our job to show-off both the City of Chicago and our proposed plan for the 2016 Games. This is our only opportunity to give the IOC a first-hand look at Chicago. While the bid presentations and venue tours are integral components of the visit, I’m most looking forward to the cultural and entertainment night. This will give us an opportunity to let loose a little, and throw a party in the way that only Chicago can. Now I’ve thrown my fair share of parties, but we’re going to need a little help to make this one happen. Any suggestions?

(3)    Boost our volunteer corps. The Olympic and Paralympic Games are made possible by the volunteers who donate their time to work the Games – tens of thousands of people volunteered in Beijing! We’re constantly signing up new recruits. Interested? Sign up! (http://www.chicago2016.org/volunteer.aspx)

(4)    Bring the Olympics back to the States! Yes, I know this is an obvious one, but I couldn’t leave out the most ambitious resolution of them all.

I think that’s a fairly well-rounded set of resolutions for the Bid, don’t you? As opposed to my annual resolution to eat healthier and read more, I’m confident these will not be brushed aside any time soon.

Even as the economy has struggled in recent months, an event I attended to close out 2008 proved that many people remain hard at work in the non-profit sector and related organizations trying to provide programs and services to make the lives of others better.  So as we embark on 2009, let’s all make a New Year’s Resolution to give to appropriate organizations and to needy recipients:  If not financially, than of ourselves.
 
Linda Mastandrea (wheelchair athletics, 1992, 1996), Kraig Singleton (swimming, 1988), Hope Lewellen (wheelchair tennis, 1996, 2000; sitting volleyball 2000, 2008) and I, along with Chicago 2016 Chief Operating Officer David Bolger, spoke at the UBS “Celebration of Giving” breakfast held Thursday, Dec. 18.  We were there at the invitation of Patrick Sheahan, executive director of public affairs at UBS, and a Chicago 2016 Committee and Paralympic Advisory Council member.  The event, led by emcee Sheahan, honored and thanked leaders of non-profit organizations during a themed breakfast – in this case, a theme about the Chicago 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid and the power of the Olympic and Paralympic movements – which had the four of us speaking about our diverse backgrounds.

Left to right: Kraig Singleton, Hope Lewellen, Diane Simpson, Linda Mastandrea
Photo © Wiliam Koechling
 
Lewellen of Palos Heights talked first.  A multi-sport athlete in softball, basketball and swimming at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Hope lost her leg in an accident while working as an airplane mechanic.  Hope went on to become a four-time Paralympian.  She took home a silver medal in wheelchair tennis in her first Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., in 1996, and made the quarterfinal round in 2000 in Sydney. She moved on to sitting volleyball and helped the United States win the bronze medal in Athens in 2004. This year in Beijing, she won the silver medal after the U.S. team defeated the talented Netherlands squad in the semifinals.
 
“On the awards stand, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be doing that at home [in 2016],” Lewellen said.

Kraig was next.  He is a twin (like Linda) who grew up in – and competed for – the U.S. Virgin Islands.  He competed in three relays and three individual events (100- and 200-meter breaststroke, 200-meter individual medley) in Seoul.  He resides in Chicago and is a Harvard University graduate.  His butterfly-specialist brother, Kristan made Olympic teams in 1988 and in 1992.
 
“The wonderful thing of the Olympics is that it makes you think globally,” said Singleton, who trained in his teens under Michael Lohberg, coach of U.S. swim phenom Dara Torres.
 
I spoke about trying to get to the Olympics from the time I saw Nadia Comaneci compete at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
 
“My greatest reward as an Olympian has been giving back to the community,” I said.  “This journey for the 2016 Games is about hope, it’s about youth and it’s about giving youth a better future.”
 
The nearly 130 event invitees represented colleges including Northwestern University and various organizations from the John G. Shedd Aquarium to After School Matters and from the Joffrey Ballet to Access Living, the latter of which was represented by Chicago 2016 Paralympic Advisory Council member Marca Bristo. The foundation leaders listened attentively and were excited to hear more.

Mastandrea provided the longer, from-the-heart speech of the morning.

Linda Mastandrea
Photo © Wiliam Koechling
 
“I am inspired by the dreams of others,” said Linda, the director of Paralympics and Accessibility at Chicago 2016.  “I grew up watching others in the Olympic Games.  I grew up with a disability called cerebral palsy.  It meant I could not participate in physical education.

“I got to college [and] when I sprained my ankle, I ended up meeting the wheelchair basketball coach at the University of Illinois.”

Linda qualified for the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona in wheelchair athletics.  But apparently, she did not race.

“I sat down with my coach.  I ended up in Atlanta with a silver and a gold medal and a world record.  It’s still mind blowing after the event.”

The four of us reminisced about the opportunity to share our athletic experiences with others; just as the leaders and volunteers of our non-profits in the arts, at our cultural museums, at our Festivals, or in our communities are doing, as well as the sport coaches and health professionals who work to help others maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle.

As 2009 begins, let us join together to remember this Olympic and Paralympic spirit of participation and the non-profit goals to provide both services and programs for others.  With numerous surveys that show volunteering has both social and health benefits, donate a few dollars or some of your time to a cause – perhaps even to Chicago 2016 – and do it because you too, are making a difference.

About 30 Olympians, Paralympians and an Olympic hopeful demonstrated, conducted clinics, participated in tournaments, or provided meet-and-greet opportunities at the ninth annual Mayor Daley’s Holiday Sports Festival 
held Dec. 27 – 29 at McCormick Place.
 
What began as Holiday Hoops in 2000 has grown to an event -- free to the public -- that encompasses both tournaments and interactive zones, and reaches 85.000 youth and their families.  Produced by the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, Chicago 2016 and World Sport Chicago have offered areas to introduce youth to sport and to promote both the Olympic and Paralympic movements for the past three years.
 
The three-day event kicked off with Mayor Richard M. Daley highlighting a new partnership among organizations to create the Chicago Paralympic Development Program.  The program is a gathering of organizations such as Chicago 2016, World Sport Chicago, U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and 10 partner groups such as the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Assoc. and others to encourage youth participation in adaptive sports for people with disabilities.
 
Bill Scherr, (wrestling, 1988) chair of World Sport Chicago and director of sport at Chicago 2016, introduced the initiative, along with Charlie Huebner, of U.S. Paralympics, and Linda Mastandrea, (wheelchair athletics, 1992, 1996) a gold and silver medalist and the director of Paralympics and Accessibility at Chicago 2016.
 
"This will benefit the next generation of athletes," Mastandrea said.  "This is about advancing in the sports with real coaches with real expertise and more resources."

The development program, which will help train coaches and provide both transportation and equipment, will launch with an emphasis on judo, cycling and boccia for people with visual and physical disabilities.
 
Paralympians Greta Neimanas (cycling, 2008), Jason Wening (swimming 1992, 1996, 2000) and Paul Moran (sitting volleyball, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004; wheelchair tennis, 2008) participated in the news conference.
 
New this year, the WSC and Chicago 2016 zone held focus-sport areas led by Olympians in badminton, wrestling, judo, rowing, archery and fencing, while a wheelchair basketball tournament supported by the Chicago Park District and RIC featured adaptive sports.
 
Badminton teammates Howard Bach (2004, 2008), Bob Malaythong, (2008) and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Tony Gunawan (who then competed for Indonesia) served all three days, while 1984 Olympic alternate Doug Tono of Chicago's Tohkon Judo Club Olympian Majemite Omagbaluwaje of Nigeria worked judo.  Team handball was represented by Yaro Dachniwsky (1996), rowing by two-time Olympian Tony Brooks, racewalking by Gary Morgan, and wrestling featured 1964 Olympian Bob Pickens -- the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners vice president -- Lee Kemp (1980), the 2008 Olympic coach, and coach Sean Bormet, the 2006 USA Wrestling Freestyle Coach of the Year. Fencing hopeful Aida Abdikulov helped out on Monday, and Ella Chafee (1964, 1968 swimming and wheelchair athletics; 1996, fencing) Patrick Byrne (sled hockey, 2002) turned out.
 
Patty Cisneros, (wheelchair basketball, 2000, 2004, 2008) who served as co-captain in Beijing en route to the U.S. team's second consecutive gold medal, and multiple-time Paralympic Games coach Bob Szyman, PhD, also visited the Chicago 2016 booth on Monday.  Cisneros is back coaching wheelchair basketball at the University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign.
 
Headlining the international charge at Killerspin’s annual SPINvitational table tennis championship were competitors led by Chicagoan and five-time Olympian Ilija Lupulesku  – the winner of a silver medal in doubles at the 1988 Seoul Games.  But the event also featured athletes including: Zhang Yining, a two-time Olympian who won back-to-back gold medals in both singles and doubles at the 2004 and the 2008 Olympic Games.   Yining took the Olympic Oath on behalf of all athletes at the Beijing Olympic Games.  Vladimir Samsonov, an Olympian from Belarus and one of the top professional table tennis players in the world, and Olympians Chen Qi (China), Kalinikos Kreanga (Greece),  Sharath Kamal (India), Michael Maze (Denmark) and Georgina Pota (Hungary) also participated.

Most ordinary outdoor sports fans would look at the weather this week and say that it’s a good thing that Chicago is bidding for the 2016 summer, and not winter, Olympic & Paralympic Games.

On Monday, December 22, the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers American professional football teams squared off on the lakefront in beautiful Soldier Field.  Beautiful, but very, very cold.   Right before kickoff, while I watched the Bears and the Packers warm up on the sidelines,  I heard the weather announcer smugly announce (from her heated press box seats, no doubt) that the kickoff temperature was “negative 1 degree, with a windchill of about negative 20 degrees.”  (That translates to about -18 degrees and -28 degrees Celsius, respectively.)  It wouldn’t be until after the final snap that I would learn that I, along with 62.150 other fans, had just watched the coldest game in the long and storied history of the Chicago Bears.

But Chicago sports fans are anything but ordinary.  As I looked around from my field level vantage point, I saw packed seats everywhere.  Few, if any, fans sought to escape the cold at halftime. Chicago fans were raucous and loud and having a fantastic time for the entire game, despite the temperature.   There were fans with painted faces, with dreadlocked hats, and even a few fans that went shirtless.  (For the record, I had about six layers on and still shivered through the game).

Watching the Monday Night Football Game in Chicago made clear to me the extent of the role sports play in Chicago’s and America’s culture.  The Green Bay Packers, for example, Chicago’s opponent this week have defined the small city of Green Bay in northern Wisconsin to much of the outside world.   And many of the citizens of Green Bay, who own shares as taxpayers in the professional football team, would probably agree that the Packers organization is a cultural institution. The same could be said for many of the professional and collegiate sports teams throughout Chicago and the Midwest.

It was hard not to imagine those same fans along with the millions of other Midwestern sports fanatics, packing Soldier Field and the other Chicago venues for the Olympics & Paralympics.  If over 60.000 fans ventured out into the subzero temperatures in December in Chicago for only one game, imagine the many millions that would descend upon Chicago for the sports festival that would take place in the sunny, warm summer weather during the Olympiad.

America really is a sports-crazed country, and its sporting epicenter may very well be the Midwest.  Whether it be in blizzards, torrential rain, or scorching sun, Midwestern sports fans seem to always turn out in droves to support their teams.  Bringing the largest global sports event to Chicago might merely be the ultimate manifestation of our beloved sports fanaticism.

One of the most rewarding things we do as Olympians and Paralympians is giving back to the community.  So it is fitting that in the midst of this holiday season of giving today – on Christmas Eve – that we reflect and tell the story of two Olympians who are helping enhance the lives of youth in our neighborhoods.

To quote part of the mission statement of the U.S. Olympians Association, “U.S. Olympians strive to foster the spirit of Olympism in each community, to motivate and encourage youth and to develop camaraderie among those who have shared the unique experience of representing their nation at the Olympic Games.”

This mission is exemplified in activities such as the Chicago Public Schools’ Principal for Day program that this year featured 23 Olympians, six Paralympians and an Olympic hopeful.  This was further demonstrated by two-time, father-son Olympian cyclists John and Christian Vande Velde.

The charitable duo donated two Felt Cruiser bicycles and two Giro bike helmets on December 11 to the University of Chicago Charter School – Woodlawn campus housed within the James Wadsworth Elementary School, where they have served as co-Principals for A Day for the past two years.

“They only wanted us to give two bikes out this trimester,” said John Vande Velde, a U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame member, a participant in the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games and the former vice president of USA Cycling. “They were based on honor roll and perfect attendance.”

Christian Vande Velde, a 2000 and 2008 Olympian, who captured the pink jersey on a leg of the Giro d’Italie (the Tour of Italy), won the Tour of Missouri this year and claimed the overall Pro Tour in 2008 said it’s a great testament to their roles as Olympians and in promoting Olympism taken from the core of the Olympic Charter.

“As my father and I are both two-time Olympians, we wanted to raise awareness of the Olympic Movement and spirit, and the hope of bringing that spirit to Chicago,” Christian said.  “And not to overlook the biggest fact—the fact that within eight years those same kids could be representing our country in the 2016 Games.”

Unless the younger Vande Velde is there competing in one of their places, of course.

“Right now, I am training in preparation of my assault on the Tour de France where I finished one step off the podium,” Christian said about his completion of the race as a Team Garmin-Chipotle racer at the 2008 tour.  “[I’m] currently freezing along with all the other Chicago residents.”
 
Thankfully, the 2016 Games are in the summer.

“It was one of the most rewarding things I have done in a long time,” said John, who also donated a Jewel gift card to a girl in need.  “It was really wonderful.  I think there were 14 boys and girls that were eligible for the drawing.  I called them all up to the stage and then drew one girl’s [name] and one boy’s name. They were in tears!”