Team Darfur triathlete and Special Representative to the UN World Tourism Organization ST-EP Foundation attended the Beijing Games as a supporter of the US Team and a high-level panelist.
On her website, Tracy describes her experiences:
Tracy was proud to be attending the Beijing Olympic Games as member of Team Darfur, a coalition of professional athletes committed to ending the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Although athletes faced significant restrictions to speaking out about human rights at the Olympics, Team Darfur athletes still ensured that the Olympic dream reached out to the people of Darfur.
It was a rocky start for Team Darfur in Beijing. One of the Panelists missing at the 2008 Beijing Sport, Tourism & Development Forum was Olympic Gold Medalist and Team Darfur Founder Joey Cheek. Joey was scheduled to speak on the panel alongside the other high level officials. However, Cheek never made the trip, as his Visa was revoked by the Chinese Government just hours before he was scheduled to leave for China. It was widely reported that China went to great lengths to try to silence any talk of human rights issues at the Olympic Games, as it did not fit in with the image they were trying to portray to the world.
For more on Tracy, Team Darfur and the Beijing Games, click here.
