Idaho's 2010 Winter Olympics Athletes
Floor Speech
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, today I wish to honor Idaho's Winter Olympics athletes. Just a few days ago, our country's Olympic champions were at the White House to meet with President Obama, who marked the great success of the American 2010 Winter Olympic team. The American team made an outstanding showing by winning a record 37 medals, more than any single country ever in the Winter Olympics. With six athletes, Idaho's team made an impressive contribution to this performance, even adding to the medal count. The Idaho team includes freestyle/aerial skier Jeret Peterson, of Boise; Alpine skier Hailey Duke, of Boise; Biathlon skier Sara Studebaker, of Boise; cross country skier Morgan Arritola, of Ketchum; Alpine skier Eric Fisher, of Middleton; and snowboarder Graham Watanabe, of Sun Valley. Jeret Peterson won the silver medal for freestyle skiing/aerials with the successful completion of his signature move, the ``Hurricane,'' which includes an amazing three flips and five twists all in a single jump.
The U.S. Olympic team also includes several other athletes with ties to Idaho: freestyle skier Emily Cook, from Massachusetts, who trained at Bogus Basin in her youth and is friends with Jeret Peterson; Freestyle skier Patrick Deneen, from Washington, who skied at Silver Mountain near Kellogg in his youth; snowboarder Elena Hight, from California, who lived in Boise when young and learned to snowboard at Bogus Basin; bobsledder Nick Cunningham, from California, who was a track star at Boise State University; and snowboarder Nate Holland, from California, who grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, where he learned to ski at Schweitzer Mountain.
I offer my sincere and well-deserved congratulations to Idaho's 2010 Winter Olympics athletes. Simply making the U.S. Olympic team is an amazing achievement in itself. It takes a lifetime of hard work, dedication and practice. It is truly a great accomplishment and they have made Idaho proud. I look forward to seeing each of them again at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and hope to see even more Idahoans join them to represent our great State.
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