Pursuing Olympic Dreams just got a whole lot harder for many USA athletes with the news that Home Depot is ending it’s Olympic sponsorship program.
I personally know several athletes that without this program wouldn’t have had the time to train to make the Olympic team. While I never utilized the program myself, I was fortunate enough to have been be able to work at Teach For America and train, but finding a situation like this is very hard and I got extremely lucky.
It’s truly amazing how the US does so well at the Olympics considering the tiny amount of support many sports receive here financially while many of our counter-parts in Europe are fully government funded. I’m not for the government stepping in to fund our teams, but it’s just already hard for so many people to do this and it especially hurts the smaller sports and lower-income athletes that benefited from this program.
Thu Jan 8, 2009 3:03pm EST
(Reuters) The company currently employs 98 people in the Olympic Jobs Opportunities Program, in which it had been a sponsor since 1992.
After March 2, those athletes will no longer receive full-time benefits. They can remain in their part-time jobs, apply for full-time positions, or discontinue their employment at Home Depot.
New Year’s Eve was our latest endeavor into the New York City events scene with a party of our own design, the aptly named, “Open ’09 with Olympians” at Elmo’s Lounge.
Counting down to 2009 with Richie…10,9,8,7…
With very little experience about what it takes to throw a cool party and sell tickets (why does everyone wait until the last minute to finalize NYE plans?!?!), we were in a bit over our heads, but in the end we learned a lot of valuable party planning lessons and it all came together with a packed house, a hip crowd and most importantly— we raised about $4000 dollars for the Right To Play charity!
Steve (one of Elmo’s Owners) with Mo Rocca and me
The hilarious Mo Rocca,a long time contributor to Daily Show,was in attendance and while he chatted with partiers, Richie Rich’s dancing and revelry helped set a fun tone. In attendance were a number of Olympians including Judo champion and two-time Olympian Taraje Williams-Murray, Canadian swimmer Nikki Dryden and Olympic Silver and Bronze Medal winning diver Anne Montminy along with a packed house of friends that helped us bring in 2009 with a bang!
Matt and a lot of girls
Now, a few tips from our experience throwing this party (Somewhere Scott Buccheit is laughing at me as I write)
One good idea when throwing a party is to recruit folks with a lot of friends to help you host. We learned this lesson late in the game,(luckily we learned it!) but thanks to Alison Goldman, Eva Snopek, Ember Dahlvig and Jackie Gonzalez for bringing a crew of friends!
Alison Goldman and her Crew
Another good idea is to make sure that the person you hire to work your door doesn’t get drunk and pass out on the job! Yes, our door man was passed out by 11pm and then proceeded to vomit. Let’s just say our door might not have been as well guarded as it needed to be!
Our friend 2-Time Olympian in Judo Taraje Williams-Murray
And lastly, in the category of things I never thought I would be doing, at one point we had 50 women RSVPed and only 5 men, and we had to spend quality time trying to find men to come to our party! (Haha, I remember back in high school when I might have struggled to get 2 girls to come a party…times have certainly changed!)
MORE PICTURES! (You can go to guestofaguest.com to check out more pictures)
Special kudos to Geoff Welch who drove all the way from Boston to attend and Luz for working our door once our doorman went down!
Tuesday night at the Gehry designed IAC building, legends of New York City sports and several hundred guests turned out to honor Michael Phelps as the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.
Special guests included New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, (perhaps a long lost brother of Phelps?), running back Brandon Jacobs, NHL Hall of Fame Ranger Mike Richter, Super Mom Deborah Phelps, NY Giants legend Harry Carson, several NHL playersand yours truly Olympic Medalists/Good Guys/Fencing Promoters Jason Rogers and Tim Morehouse.
Why the rave reviews? Cabanas, amazing food, synchronized swimmers performing in the pool mid-party (seriously!), women’s soccer team members doing conga lines with their gold medals, every athlete in attendance(post competition of course!) and the list goes on and on…
Sadly, in Beijing there were no SI parties (although any rumor of one spread like wildfire), but luckily they had this one in NYC! And true to form, the party did not disappoint. The AIC space was decked out with the SI logo (pillows on the couches to the logo on the napkins), the music was rockingand a cool electronic wall sported various sponsors logos and Olympic highlights. And as would be expected, copious amounts of the Michael Phelps SI issue were strategically placed throughout the space.
Super Bowl Ring Meets Olympic Medal
Brandon Jacobs proudly showed off his super bowl ring (so big that it would be a bracelet for most people), Eli Manning was extremely gracious, staying long after most athletes had left to talk to fans, take pictures and sign autographs. Mike Richter chatted about the good old days of the Rangers, and super mom Deborah Phelps was even in attendance and she mixed and mingled with all the athletes like a true pro while keeping a motherly eye on her son .
Where will we be next?
You can catch up with us from 6:30pm-9pm on Friday at our Holiday Cocktail Party at Rock N Sake (139 W. 25th).
It was pouring and cold, but nothing could damper the amazing experience of being honored on the field before the New York Jets played the Denver Broncos at the Meadowlands.
Along with fellow Olympians from Beijing and previous games from the tri-state area we had our names announced before the coin toss and then got to stay for the game.(which unfortunately the Jets lost!)
Donnie klang, from Making the Band 4, Olympic Silver Medalist Tim Morehouse and Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer Cullen Jones
Donnie Klang from making the Band 4 sung the national anthem and then we got to spend some quality time with Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones and his mother, both amazingly nice people, in a luxury box with some of our friends from the NFL.
Olympic Medalists in Fencing Tim Morehouse, James Williams and Emily Cross on the 20-yard line at the NY Jets Game
Paul Rudd, from the recently released hit movie Role Models, was also in attendance, but we unfortunately missed getting a chance to meet him and to tell him how much we all had died laughing from the movie we had just seen the night before! Thanks to the Jets, NFL and our new friends from the game!
Jason Rogers and I have been doing a lot of speaking appearances and attending a lot of events the past few months, but we have also begun training and I wanted to share with you a little bit about my training regiment.
My post-Olympic training includes 3 days a week of strength and conditioning with my trainer Kelly Shaver, 2 days a week of proactive physical thereapy, to improve my flexibility and deal with early injury symptoms, and I’m fencing 2 days a week. As the season and Olympic quadrenial go on I will add more fencing days, but right now I’m trying to get my body ready for the next four years.
The videos I have uploaded are a few examples of the cycles of exercises that I do each session to help my strength, balance, explosivness and endurance. I’ve noticed a big improvment in my fencing footwork and ability to move since I’ve been doing these work outs even though I’m only fencing a few days a week right now. (Read my disclaimer below)
Disclaimer: I’m not saying this is what you should do to improve your fencing, or that it’s the best work out– this is training that is great for me and might be beneficial to you and I wanted to share it with you. (I’ve also been building up to many of these exercises) I’m not the perfect model of them either! Would love to hear your thoughts/comments.
The NY Post has been running a bunch of stories on Page 6 about recent celebrities being auctioned off for Charities including tennis legend John McEnroe and figure skater Oksana Baiul.
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Tennis lessons with John McEnroe sold for $10,000 dollars, a date with figure staker Oksana Baiul sold for $2500 dollars…makes me even more amazed that our clinic sold for $20,000 at the Boys Town New York gala!!!!
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Maybe Page 6 will be in our future? That might be a first for a fencer! For now, we got a nice mention in Black Tie magazine.
Olympic silver medalists Tim Morehouse and Jason Rogers from the U.S. Fencing team with Grammy-nominated performer Chrisette Michele at the Boys Town New York Building Hope Gala where much needed funds were raised in support of the organization’s interventional programs for at-risk girls and boys. Photo by: Chris London
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Email me!
tim@timmorehouse.com
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