Catholic Winter Olympic Hero

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stillsmallvoice

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Hi all!

This is from the current edition of The (New York) Jewish Week. I had never heard this story before. I thought that my Catholic friends here at CAF might be interested, especially since the Turin games are about to begin.
Gold Medal for Conscience

On eve of Winter Olympics, Irish Catholic skater’s decision to forgo personal glory during Nazi Games is coming to fuller light.

(…).

And if Lake Placid, a town of 2,700, has a First Family, it is the Sheas.

They are an Olympic dynasty, a three-generation Olympic family with a well-developed sense of noblesse oblige. Jack Shea, winner of two gold medals in figure skating in his hometown in 1932, is the patriarch of the Irish Catholic clan, enshrined in the museum.

Lake Placid, which put up a plaque with Shea’s name in a park down the street from the Olympic Center, honors Shea for his accomplishments on the ice.

To the Jewish community, Shea is a hero for what he did away from the ice — specifically for why he was not on the ice to defend his medals at the 1936 Winter Olympics.

He didn’t go because the Games were in Nazi Germany. And his act — nearly forgotten for seven decades and only now coming to full light as the XX Winter Olympics are about to begin in Turin, Italy — stands as testimony to one person’s resolve to follow his conscience and oppose both popular culture and the athletic establishment.

(cont.)
Click to expand...
Link: thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12005

Be well!

ssv 👋 http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sp/v/nfl/teams/1/80x60/pit.gif
 
SSV,

Thanks for sharing. What would have to happen to have him declared a Righteous Gentile?

BTW, I have to disagree with 😉 “If the United States has a winter sports capital, it is this hilly village 40 miles from the Canadian border and site of two Winter Olympics” Steamboat Springs, Colorado 😃 has more Winter Olympic medal winners then any other city in the US.
 
Thank you for posting the story! I really appreciate you taking to the time and effort to post something uplifting and gratifying to both of our faiths!

Pax
Shalom

-Chris
 
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