|
|
| February 2006
|
ALUMNI NEWS |
|||||
| Pioneering
Alum Puts Political Spin on Olympic Curling Team for D.C. Mike
Panetta
tries his hand at curling Mike Panetta, SPA/BA ’93, SPA/MA ’94, believes if D.C. has the same voting rights in Congress as the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands - one nonvoting delegate, rather than two senators and a proportionate number of representatives based on a state’s population - then why shouldn’t D.C. have the same other rights as these territories? You know, such as the ability to form an Olympic committee? Flash back to the 2004 Olympic Summer Games, when Panetta and friends were gathered around a TV at the Adams Mill bar in Adams Morgan watching the opening ceremonies. “It looked like such a great experience - the athletes were all smiling and taking pictures, and we were thinking how we could become Olympic athletes are our age,” remembers Panetta, then 33. While the conversation was mostly tongue-in-cheek, by night’s end, Panetta and his friends had decided that the little-known (and often ridiculed) winter sport of curling was one of the only sports they’d ever have a shot at competing in, given their status as a collective of fairly typical guys more accustomed to lifting beer mugs than weights. A few days later, when the U.S. basketball “Dream Team” get beaten by Puerto Rico, Panetta got to wondering why - knowing the way it was represented as a terrirtory of the U.S., Puerto Rico had an Olympic team and D.C. didn't. For the record, the quirky winter sport of curling was founded by the Scottish hundreds of years ago and made its way to America in the 1830s. Named for (granite) rocks that curve or “curl” down the specially misted ice, some say the sport takes less effort than one might expect. Still, a team's sweepers can travel two to three miles in a game, says Panetta. "It's often compared to shuffleboard on ice, but I don’t think that’s a good description. It’s much tougher than that. You have to push a 45-pound stone down a sheet of ice and get it to the target. You’re either pushing the stone or chasing after it sweeping to keep it straight and where it needs to go."
Despite popularity in the north-central states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota, curling didn’t debut as an Olympic sport until 1998 in Nagano, Japan, reports the Potomac Curling Club. Today, more than a million people participate in curling in 35 countries, though 90 percent live in Canada. The Potomac Curling Club describes it as a game of "finesse, strategy and fitness... Seemingly simple. A granite rock, a sheet of ice, a target 42 yards away. Finish with your rocks closer to the target than your opponents', and your team of four wins a game in which keen competition mixes with a wonderful social atmosphere.” Says
Panetta: "It's
a lot harder than it looks on TV. Imagine having a 90-foot living room
and Swiffering as fast as you can - only it's covered in ice."
Their hunch was right. In a matter of weeks, the launch of http://www.dcolympicteam.org/ and its accompanying campaign has brought more than 1,500 visitors to the site to learn about the cause and sign up for updates; a sponsorship from Labatt’s Blue beer that includes matching jerseys for the fledgling team; and media coverage from Time magazine, the Washington Post, NBC4, and Fox news. Panetta, who helps create strategic media campaigns for a living at Grassroots Enterprises in downtown D.C., formed the curling team and built the Web site with his coworkers – including fellow alum Craig Cola, SOC/BA '96. The team has gone curling three times now – at the Potomac Curling Club (which practices at an ice rink in Laurel, Md. – go figure). It may seem quite a stretch to link voting representation to Olympic curling, but Panetta is quick to point out that the audience his new efforts has garnered is a completely different one from those who’ve supported the laudable efforts by dcvote.org for many years. "They do a lot of good work, but we’re bringing new energy and new eyeballs to it... The underlying issue – lack of representation for D.C. - is very serious, and we’re serious about pushing as fast as we can. Whether we march in opening ceremonies remains to be seen." Panetta asks anyone who supports his efforts to get an Olympic Committee in D.C. do so by sending a letter to the IOC. The group needs more than one sport on its roster to be officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee, so Panetta and his fellow curlers are looking for athletes in other sports to join them. "In the meantime you can help by spreading the word," sums Panetta. Send your questions and comments to: dcolympicteam@gmail.com Certainly, the United States' Men's Curling Team bringing home a bronze medal last week can only help the efforts. -Melissa Reichley |
|||||
