Team Darfur President Joey Cheek has been nominated for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year award [3]. 

Jack McCallum nominated Cheek because [4]:

Cheek last made headlines for something that happened off the ice -- the Chinese Embassy revoked his visa shortly before he was set to leave the U.S. for the Beijing Olympics. What prompted China's action was Cheek's involvement in Team Darfur, an organization of international athletes he co-founded to bring awareness to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Cheek's intention -- and he made no secret about it -- was to talk to athletes, the media and the public in Beijing about China's financial support of a government that has brutalized Darfur's people.

Because 9 American Team Darfur athletes were listed as such by the Chinese government in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics.  Yesterday, USA Today [7] broke the story that:

China's government was so concerned about the possibility of athlete demonstrations in the Beijing Olympics that it created a list of nine U.S. athletes and one assistant coach it thought might cause trouble at the Games, according to an internal U.S. Olympic Committee e-mail obtained by USA TODAY...

The list was given to USOC officials in a July 8 meeting by Shu Xiao, minister counselor for cultural affairs at the Chinese embassy in Washington, according to the e-mail.

You can read the whole e-mail here [8], but apparently

Team Darfur swimmer Adrian Turner has a piece in this month's edition of Voices of Tomorrow.

My newspaper today is quiet. Sat on the train trundling towards the north of England, I go through the usual inconvenience of a two-minute wrestling match with a broadsheet. The other passengers loll silently in unison in their seats, as I noisily fold the epic pages of the paper and try my best not to elbow my innocent neighbour repeatedly in the chin.

My newspaper today is quiet. Among the quotidian stories, my newspaper murmurs of four multi-millionaires who have decided to stop funding the country's (mis)leading political party, the sale of a Monet for £40.9m (US$70m) and a new yellow-card cautioning system for cricketers behaving badly on the field of play (...for slurping their tea perhaps?).

For more, click here [11]. 

According to the New York Times [14],

Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 were injured Monday in a government assault on a huge camp for displaced people in Darfur, the conflict-riddled region in western Sudan, according to witnesses and leaders at the camp... 

Hussein Abu Sharati, a spokesman for the roughly 90,000 displaced people living in the camp, said dozens of heavily armed vehicles operated by Sudanese security forces surrounded the camp at dawn and opened fire.

The Sudanese police released a statement in Nyala on Monday saying that the operation had been carried out to seize weapons stored at the camp. It contended that Darfur rebel groups were planning to use the weapons to carry out assassinations...

The United Nations said in a statement that it was “gravely concerned” about reports of attacks on civilians in the camp. But aid officials and displaced people expressed dismay that nearby peacekeeping troops, part of a joint mission of the United Nations and the African Union, did not intervene. 

In a story that shows the power of the Olympic spirit to inspire efforts for peace around the world, young people from across South Sudan gathered in Twic County for the annual "Twic Olympics".  

The games began in 2000 against the backdrop of civil war and are used to encourage peace and reconciliation.

Located on the border between northern and southern Sudan, Twic was at the center of the brutal 21-year war.

Teams from each of the county’s six districts compete for sporting glory in a relaxed but competitive environment.

The teams are meant to offer young people returning home after the war a chance to integrate back into their communities.

Twelve international agencies fund the games, including Christian Aid. Its local partner, Sudan Production Aid (Supraid), organizes the games, trying to bring local groups together in a spirit of friendship.

US Olympic team captains voted Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese refugee and Team Darfur athlete, to lead the US Olympic team and carry the US flag at the opening ceremonies. Read the article here [19].

Lopez was also named Darfur Hero of August by Save Darfur. Read the article here [20].

Joey Cheek and Team Darfur released the following statement on August 8:

To see Lopez Lomong carry the flag into the opening ceremonies makes me proud to be an Olympian, and that the American team captains selected him reflects so much of what I love about the Olympic Spirit and Olympians. The Olympic Spirit is about coming together to set new records and achieve the impossible, about resolving our conflicts and celebrating our common humanity, and Lopez embodies that spirit. All of us at Team Darfur offer him our hearty congratulations.

The Chinese government revoked [23] Joey Cheek's visa on Tuesday, preventing him from attending the Beijing Games. The Chinese government does not give reasons for denying or revoking visas.  We also learned that Team Darfur decathlete Chris Boyles' visa was revoked [24] on Monday. 

The move was condemned by the Bush administration and a White House official said on Wednesday that the U.S. embassy in Beijing will ask that the decision be reversed.

Wednesday's edition of the Boston Globe featured a biography piece on Team Darfur co-founder and president Joey Cheek. The feature covers Joey's unique path to becoming a human rights activist as well as his time spent training for and competing in the Olympics. 

"Speedskater Joey Cheek, 29, glides through T.F. Green International Airport as if he's in a race with himself, his long, thin torso leaning slightly forward when he walks. His Olympic gold medal is stashed in his backpack. He's in New England to give a motivational speech for a pharmaceutical company to help pay those pesky Princeton tuition bills. But he has his eyes on a bigger prize. Peace in Darfur, Sudan."

Read the entire article here [27].  

[30]

As you probably know, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced a Resolution, encouraging a cessation of violence and renewed peace efforts in Darfur. Now, you can help, too! Dream for Darfur has designed a petition calling upon Senators McCain and Obama to co-sponsor this Resolution. With their prominent role in the news right now, their support could increase awareness about the genocide in Darfur and help encourage serious actions towards obtaining peace. To sign the petition, go to the Dream for Darfur [31] website. Dream for Darfur seeks to use the leverage of the Olympics to press China to bring security to Darfur.