Post by Okwes on Mar 6, 2006 13:36:04 GMT -5
Native Americans Seek Olympic Recognition
BY KARA BRIGGS
c.2006 Newhouse News Service
www.newhousenews.com/archive/briggs030306.html
<http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/briggs030306.html>
A decade ago, Stew Young was flying down the slopes of the Swiss Alps,
hoping his personal best would be good enough to take him to the
Olympics.
But the Oregon ironworker was paying for his own training, and he was in
his late 30s -- an old man by world-class athlete standards. He stopped
short of his dream.
Now Young, a Tulalip Tribes member, is at the forefront of a movement to
get more Native Americans into the Olympics. He and others are trying to
help indigenous peoples overcome what they consider obstacles to
competition -- from bias in sporting circles to poverty that prevents
youths from receiving the early, elite training that creates the top
echelon of athletes.
A handful of Native American organizations in the United States and
Canada are seeking International Olympic Committee recognition as
sovereign nations, which would allow them to establish what Young calls
the North American Indigenous Olympic team. To that end, Young traveled
last week with 1968 Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee -- founder of the
nonprofit Native Voices Foundation, which is organizing the Olympic bid
-- to the Olympics in Turin, Italy, to make their case.
The creation of such a team composed of athletes from tribes across the
continent faces daunting challenges, including established ideas of what
constitutes a nation. But Native American groups have talked about
creating their own team since a Mohawk lacrosse team competed for Canada
in the 1904 Summer Olympics, Young said.
"This Olympic team is going to happen sometime," he said. "We are taking
the first steps."
A spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee said Native
Americans shouldn't expect anything more than the same chance other
amateur athletes have to make their national teams.
"The U.S. Olympic Committee is recognized by the IOC as the steward for
the Olympic movement in the United States," said Jeff Howard, director
of corporate communications for the USOC. "And only one entity within a
nation can have that distinction."
The International Olympic Committee doesn't recognize ethnic groups,
said David Wallechinsky, vice president of the International Society of
Olympic Historians.
It does, however, recognize people who have been colonized by geographic
area, he said, which is why Guam and Puerto Rico, both U.S. territories,
have their own teams. Hong Kong, now part of China, and Palestine, whose
people and Palestinian Authority government are in the West Bank, also
have Olympic teams. In Palestine's case, Wallechinsky said, the team was
an acknowledgment that, "You're right, there is nowhere you are going to
qualify" for the national team in your country.
Chaffee sees parallels to North America.
"If territories 20 miles wide can have Olympic teams," Chaffee said,
"why can't sovereign Native American nations, who invented the roots of
10 Olympic sports?"
For the past decade, Chaffee -- a three-time world freestyle skiing
champion, the first woman on the U.S. Olympic Committee and the "Suzy
Chap Stick" star of a famed 1978 television commercial -- has developed
opportunities for tribal youths to learn to ski and snowboard. Realizing
Native American athletes' desire for a team of their own, she used her
knowledge of Olympic governance to draft a proposal dated Jan. 29 to
Jacques Rogge, IOC president.
The committee, involved last week with the Olympics in Turin, did not
return calls or e-mails seeking comment.
In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Dene Chief Bill Erasmus is
training an elite indigenous hockey team in the hope of building a claim
for what he calls "Team Indigenous." His Olympic vision is sanctioned by
the Assembly of First Nations, of which he is the regional leader.
"I know a lot of people are good athletes, but they don't excel because
they don't get encouragement or they come from families that don't
support them," Erasmus said. "They really don't want to be part of the
Canadian team. If we had an indigenous team, I think we would have more
people willing and able to compete at the highest levels."
That path to the Olympics is the same one the Northern Mariana Islands,
a U.S. territory, recently traveled. Erasmus is working to get his team
admitted into national and international federations that govern amateur
hockey because, as Wallechinsky said, a nation that has been recognized
by several international sports federations has better a chance with the
International Olympic Committee.
At the 2002 Salt Lake Games, hundreds of dancers from several tribes
took part in the opening ceremony -- an experience that Karuk Tribe
member Naomi Lang, five-time national ice dancing champion who was
competing in the games, called amazing.
But with the approach of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British
Columbia, ceremonial participation isn't enough for Native American
groups. They want to compete.
The Colorado-based nonprofit Native American Sports Council funds
training for several Olympic- and Paralympic-bound athletes.
Chaffee's foundation is supporting Yupik-Inupiaq Eskimo Callan
Chythlook-Sifsof, a 16-year-old Alaskan snowboarder ranked sixth in the
world in her class.
The Squamish Nation in British Columbia is training the 22-member elite
First Nations Snowboard Team for international competition. Financed
with a $200,000 grant from the Vancouver 2010 organizing committee, the
team aims "to put an athlete on the podium," spokesman Aaron Marchant
said. The team also has a recreation program that coaches 44 young
snowboarders, from whom it hopes to cull the next generation of
potential Olympians.
Marchant wants the team to spread across Canada. By increasing the
numbers of First Nations youths it trains, he expects to increase the
chances of identifying the one world-class competitor typically found in
a pool of 10,000 athletes.
Support for the team is one of the ways the 2010 Winter Olympics
organizing committee promises unprecedented involvement with native
communities, said Maureen Douglas, community relations director for the
committee. Other commitments include economic development, efforts to
identify athletic talent in native youths and involvement in 2010 medal
ceremonies.
Every step toward the Olympic dream helps Native American communities by
inspiring physical fitness and indigenous pride, said Young, the
51-year-old skier from Corvallis, Ore.
"Native American involvement in the Olympics is going to enrich the
world," Young said. "And a North American indigenous team is going to
represent the true inclusive spirit of the Olympics."
INDIGENOUS ATHLETES
Indigenous athletes long have captured attention at the Olympic Games.
Some of the more well-known include:
Jim Thorpe, Sac & Fox Nation: In Stockholm in 1912, he won the
five-event pentathlon and broke the world record in the 10-event
decathlon. The International Olympic Committee, amid charges of racism,
later forced him to return the medals because he had played
semi-professional baseball. The committee restored the medals
posthumously in the 1980s. The U.S. House of Representatives in 1999
named him the U.S. athlete of the century.
Billy Mills, Oglala Lakota: In Tokyo in 1964, the runner became the
first U.S. athlete to win the 10,000 meters at the Games, setting an
Olympic record and upsetting the world champion.
Alwyn Morris, Mohawk: In Los Angeles in 1984, the Canadian canoeist won
two gold medals and a bronze, electrifying viewers when he carried an
eagle feather to the podium to receive one of his medals.
Cathy Freeman: In Sydney in 2000, the aboriginal runner -- who had
shocked Australia at the 1994 Commonwealth Games by wrapping herself in
an aboriginal flag for her victory lap -- tied the Australian and
aboriginal flags together for her lap after winning gold for Australia.
March 3, 2006
(Kara Briggs is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore., and
can be contacted at karabriggs@news.oregonian.com.)
BY KARA BRIGGS
c.2006 Newhouse News Service
www.newhousenews.com/archive/briggs030306.html
<http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/briggs030306.html>
A decade ago, Stew Young was flying down the slopes of the Swiss Alps,
hoping his personal best would be good enough to take him to the
Olympics.
But the Oregon ironworker was paying for his own training, and he was in
his late 30s -- an old man by world-class athlete standards. He stopped
short of his dream.
Now Young, a Tulalip Tribes member, is at the forefront of a movement to
get more Native Americans into the Olympics. He and others are trying to
help indigenous peoples overcome what they consider obstacles to
competition -- from bias in sporting circles to poverty that prevents
youths from receiving the early, elite training that creates the top
echelon of athletes.
A handful of Native American organizations in the United States and
Canada are seeking International Olympic Committee recognition as
sovereign nations, which would allow them to establish what Young calls
the North American Indigenous Olympic team. To that end, Young traveled
last week with 1968 Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee -- founder of the
nonprofit Native Voices Foundation, which is organizing the Olympic bid
-- to the Olympics in Turin, Italy, to make their case.
The creation of such a team composed of athletes from tribes across the
continent faces daunting challenges, including established ideas of what
constitutes a nation. But Native American groups have talked about
creating their own team since a Mohawk lacrosse team competed for Canada
in the 1904 Summer Olympics, Young said.
"This Olympic team is going to happen sometime," he said. "We are taking
the first steps."
A spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee said Native
Americans shouldn't expect anything more than the same chance other
amateur athletes have to make their national teams.
"The U.S. Olympic Committee is recognized by the IOC as the steward for
the Olympic movement in the United States," said Jeff Howard, director
of corporate communications for the USOC. "And only one entity within a
nation can have that distinction."
The International Olympic Committee doesn't recognize ethnic groups,
said David Wallechinsky, vice president of the International Society of
Olympic Historians.
It does, however, recognize people who have been colonized by geographic
area, he said, which is why Guam and Puerto Rico, both U.S. territories,
have their own teams. Hong Kong, now part of China, and Palestine, whose
people and Palestinian Authority government are in the West Bank, also
have Olympic teams. In Palestine's case, Wallechinsky said, the team was
an acknowledgment that, "You're right, there is nowhere you are going to
qualify" for the national team in your country.
Chaffee sees parallels to North America.
"If territories 20 miles wide can have Olympic teams," Chaffee said,
"why can't sovereign Native American nations, who invented the roots of
10 Olympic sports?"
For the past decade, Chaffee -- a three-time world freestyle skiing
champion, the first woman on the U.S. Olympic Committee and the "Suzy
Chap Stick" star of a famed 1978 television commercial -- has developed
opportunities for tribal youths to learn to ski and snowboard. Realizing
Native American athletes' desire for a team of their own, she used her
knowledge of Olympic governance to draft a proposal dated Jan. 29 to
Jacques Rogge, IOC president.
The committee, involved last week with the Olympics in Turin, did not
return calls or e-mails seeking comment.
In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Dene Chief Bill Erasmus is
training an elite indigenous hockey team in the hope of building a claim
for what he calls "Team Indigenous." His Olympic vision is sanctioned by
the Assembly of First Nations, of which he is the regional leader.
"I know a lot of people are good athletes, but they don't excel because
they don't get encouragement or they come from families that don't
support them," Erasmus said. "They really don't want to be part of the
Canadian team. If we had an indigenous team, I think we would have more
people willing and able to compete at the highest levels."
That path to the Olympics is the same one the Northern Mariana Islands,
a U.S. territory, recently traveled. Erasmus is working to get his team
admitted into national and international federations that govern amateur
hockey because, as Wallechinsky said, a nation that has been recognized
by several international sports federations has better a chance with the
International Olympic Committee.
At the 2002 Salt Lake Games, hundreds of dancers from several tribes
took part in the opening ceremony -- an experience that Karuk Tribe
member Naomi Lang, five-time national ice dancing champion who was
competing in the games, called amazing.
But with the approach of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British
Columbia, ceremonial participation isn't enough for Native American
groups. They want to compete.
The Colorado-based nonprofit Native American Sports Council funds
training for several Olympic- and Paralympic-bound athletes.
Chaffee's foundation is supporting Yupik-Inupiaq Eskimo Callan
Chythlook-Sifsof, a 16-year-old Alaskan snowboarder ranked sixth in the
world in her class.
The Squamish Nation in British Columbia is training the 22-member elite
First Nations Snowboard Team for international competition. Financed
with a $200,000 grant from the Vancouver 2010 organizing committee, the
team aims "to put an athlete on the podium," spokesman Aaron Marchant
said. The team also has a recreation program that coaches 44 young
snowboarders, from whom it hopes to cull the next generation of
potential Olympians.
Marchant wants the team to spread across Canada. By increasing the
numbers of First Nations youths it trains, he expects to increase the
chances of identifying the one world-class competitor typically found in
a pool of 10,000 athletes.
Support for the team is one of the ways the 2010 Winter Olympics
organizing committee promises unprecedented involvement with native
communities, said Maureen Douglas, community relations director for the
committee. Other commitments include economic development, efforts to
identify athletic talent in native youths and involvement in 2010 medal
ceremonies.
Every step toward the Olympic dream helps Native American communities by
inspiring physical fitness and indigenous pride, said Young, the
51-year-old skier from Corvallis, Ore.
"Native American involvement in the Olympics is going to enrich the
world," Young said. "And a North American indigenous team is going to
represent the true inclusive spirit of the Olympics."
INDIGENOUS ATHLETES
Indigenous athletes long have captured attention at the Olympic Games.
Some of the more well-known include:
Jim Thorpe, Sac & Fox Nation: In Stockholm in 1912, he won the
five-event pentathlon and broke the world record in the 10-event
decathlon. The International Olympic Committee, amid charges of racism,
later forced him to return the medals because he had played
semi-professional baseball. The committee restored the medals
posthumously in the 1980s. The U.S. House of Representatives in 1999
named him the U.S. athlete of the century.
Billy Mills, Oglala Lakota: In Tokyo in 1964, the runner became the
first U.S. athlete to win the 10,000 meters at the Games, setting an
Olympic record and upsetting the world champion.
Alwyn Morris, Mohawk: In Los Angeles in 1984, the Canadian canoeist won
two gold medals and a bronze, electrifying viewers when he carried an
eagle feather to the podium to receive one of his medals.
Cathy Freeman: In Sydney in 2000, the aboriginal runner -- who had
shocked Australia at the 1994 Commonwealth Games by wrapping herself in
an aboriginal flag for her victory lap -- tied the Australian and
aboriginal flags together for her lap after winning gold for Australia.
March 3, 2006
(Kara Briggs is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore., and
can be contacted at karabriggs@news.oregonian.com.)