The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Born to a Cuban father and an American mother, Jennifer Rodriguez is
believed to be the first athlete of Hispanic descent to compete in the Winter
Games. She also is believed to be the first athlete from Miami to compete
at the Olympic Winter Games. Rodriguez got her start on roller skates at
the age of 4 and first tried ice skating late in 1996. She struggled initially,
but it didn't take long for her to become one of the nation's best ice speed
skaters. She competed in her first all-around U.S. Championships in 1997
and placed an impressive fourth. A year later, she qualified for the Olympics
in four events - the 1000 meters, the 1500, the 3000 and the 5000 -- and
placed no worse than 13th in any of them. Her performance at the 1998 Nagano
Games was highlighted by a fourth place in the 3000. Rodriguez captured her
first U.S. all-around title in 2000, and recently garnered her fifth
World Cup Medal of the season, earning the Silver Medal in January 2002. In the
Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Rodriguez won the bronze medals in the 1000 and
1500 meters, becoming the first Hispanic female to win a medal in the Winter Olympic
Games.
At age nine, Joshua Sundquist was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma -- a rare form
of bone cancer -- in his left leg. The tumor covered most of his femur, and he
was given a fifty percent chance to live. When several months of chemotherapy
treatments didn't shrink the tumor, the decision was made to amputate the leg
at the hip. After the surgery, he decided there would be no looking back. While
still continuing cheomotherapy for another nine months, he learned to ski and to
bike ride with one leg. Now, seven years after treatment and cured of cancer, he
continues to succeed on a daily basis. He is an avid mountain biker, swimmer and
runner, but his favorite sport is skiing, which he took up competitively in 2000.
Now finished with high school, Sundquist has moved to Colorado to train full-time
in hopes of landing a spot on the U.S. Disabled Ski Team to compete in the
2006 Paralympics.
Lloyd D. Ward was named Chief Executive Officer of the United States Olympic Committee
(USOC) and began his tenure on November 1, 2001. He is the first African American to
serve the USOC as its chief executive. Ward was the first African American CEO of a
Fortune 500 company when he served as Chairman and CEO of the Maytag Corporation. He
had worked for Maytag since 1996 and served
in a variety of executive positions including Executive Vice President and President of
Maytag Appliances. Most recently, he served as Chairman and CEO of iMotors.com, an
Internet-based automotive sales and marketing company. He also enjoyed a successful
career with Pepsico, Inc., from 1988 to 1996, serving as President, Frito-Lay, Inc. -
Central Division from 1992 - 1996. The former captain of the Michigan State basketball
team, he graduated in 1970 and earned his MBA degree in 1984 from Xavier University in
Cincinnati. Ward serves on the Board of Directors of General Motors Corporation,
J.P. Morgan Chase and Company, and the Belo Corporation. He previously served on the
boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Ronald McDonald House, the
Dallay YMCA, Paul Quinn College, the Jimmy Johnson Foundation, and Inroad of Southwest
Ohio. He was named one of the "Top 25 Executives of 1998" by Business Week
magazine, one of BrandWeek magazine's "Marketers of the Year" in 1998, and
Executive of the Year in 1995 by Black Enterprise magazine.
This page was last modified on February 13, 2002.
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