Olympic Medalists Heat Up the Track at Daytona

ATLANTA (July 3, 2002) - The Home DepotŪ will host seven 2002 Olympic Winter Games medalists at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway on Saturday, July 6. Derek Parra, Tristan Gale, Garrett Hines, Rusty Smith, Dan Steele, Monte Meier and Danielle Goyette, who all financed their training by working for the home improvement retailer will sign autographs at The Home Depot Experience rig located at the corporate display area from 2-4 p.m. and attend other pre-race activities as a guest of Home Depot Pontiac driver Tony Stewart. The athletes will watch the Pepsi 400 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race from the air-conditioned comfort of The Home Depot VIP suite.

The Home Depot is the leading employer of Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls through the U.S. Olympic Committee's Olympic Job Opportunities Program (OJOP) and similar programs in Canada and Puerto Rico. Home Depot offers its athlete-associates full-time compensation for a flexible 20-hour workweek that accommodates demanding training and competition schedules. Twenty Home Depot athletes competed in Salt Lake City, winning eight medals, more than most of the countries that competed.

Garrett Hines and Dan Steele, who helped end the 46-year U.S. Bobsled medal drought, rode to silver and bronze medals in "Bo-Dyn" sleds designed by NASCAR driver Geoffrey Bodine.

Dan Steele (bronze medal, 4-man bobsled, Eugene, Ore.) - Steele, 33, won a bronze medal in the 4-man bobsled with veteran driver Brian Shimer, at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. He and his identical twin brother Darrin, who are also decathletes, both competed in bobsled at the 1998 and 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

"The Bo-Dyn project allowed U.S. bobsled to compete on a level playing field with the best countries in the world. For decades we got our sleds from other countries that would save the best equipment and sleds for their athletes and give us what was left over. Geoffrey Bodine's commitment to improving sled after sled eventually lead to the U.S. developing the fastest sleds in the world. Who better to design a bobsled than a veteran NASCAR driver? He understands racing and what time is lost or gained through technology and engineering. If your engineers haven't done their work with things like aerodynamics, nothing is going to get you to the finish line first."

Garrett Hines (silver medal, 4-man bobsled, Lake Mary, Fla.) - Lake Mary, Fla., resident Garrett Hines, 33, and his teammate Randy Jones became the first African-American men ever to medal at the Olympic Winter Games, sliding to a silver medal with driver Todd Hays in the 4-man bobsled. A two-time Olympian, Hines and crew also dominated the World Cup circuit during the 2001-2002 season, notching three gold, three silver and one bronze medal.

"Both sports have the same speed and rush strategies. The crazier you drive, the faster you are going, but the harder it is to maintain control. If you can reach the speed where you're on the edge of losing control, but still have control, you can win."

Rusty Smith (bronze medal, short track speedskating, Sunset Beach, Calif.) - Smith, a 22-year-old motorsports fanatic from Los Angeles, won bronze in the 500m Short Track Speedskating event in Salt Lake City. This year, Smith also rode on Home Depot's Rose Bowl Parade float in Pasadena. Rusty's favorite driver? Tony Stewart, of course.

"When people in the U.S. started watching short track they said it was like 'NASCAR on ice' and there really are a lot of similarities between the sports. I love to watch the drivers' tactics, because they relate to the tactics that I use in skating and I can usually see the moves they are going to make before they make them. We also use a lot of drafting and bumping techniques. We draft to make clean passes with the least amount of effort. There's a lot of physical contact in short track, so I try to conserve my energy as much as I can. I set myself up to win my final and not necessarily each individual race, just like the drivers are trying to win that last lap."

Derek Parra (gold and silver medals, speedskating, Orlando, Fla.) - Parra, an Orlando, Fla. resident, shot from relative obscurity to become one of the biggest stories at the 2002 Salt Lake Games. The 32-year-old shaved nearly 15 seconds off his personal best in the 5,000 meters to capture the silver medal and become the first Mexican-American ever to medal at the Winter Games. Ten days later, Parra captivated the world again, winning gold and setting a world record in his best race, the 1,500 meters.

"I really relate NASCAR to pack-style inline skating, which is what I used to do before I ice skated. You're in groups of 20-30 people, going around turns and are close enough that you can get a draft. What I can't relate to is being in a 100 degree car for three hours. It's the extreme opposite because in my sport I'm on the ice. I've had some six-hour bike rides in Salt Lake City in 100 degree weather so I kind of get the idea, but those guys are moving a couple hundred miles an hour and they're making split-second decisions. It's amazing."

Tristan Gale (gold medal, skeleton, Dallas, Texas) - Gale, 21, won the first gold medal ever awarded in women's Olympic Skeleton at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. A former alpine skier, she made the switch to skeleton at 18 and four years later, made her first World Cup Team and earned a trip to the Games. She was the youngest member of the National Skeleton Team and the tiny 110-pounder regularly achieves speeds up to 80 miles an hour, sliding headfirst down an icy track on her sled.

Monte Meier (silver medal, disabled alpine skiing, Heber City, Utah) - Meier, 32, won a silver medal in the slalom at the 2002 Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City for a total of four medals in three separate Paralympics. At eight years of age, Monte was in a garden tiller accident that resulted in the partial loss of his right leg. Extremely athletic and active before his accident, he was determined never to let his disability stand in his way. He also owns four World Championship medals.

Danielle Goyette (gold medal, Canadian Women's Ice Hockey, Calgary, Alberta, Canada) - The 36-year-old veteran was a member of the gold medal winning Canadian Ice Hockey team in Salt Lake City. Goyette was also Canada's top scorer in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

The Home Depot and the Olympic Movement

Home Depot currently employs more than 150 winter and summer Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, more than any other company in the world. Since 1992, more than 300 athletes have worked for Home Depot. The company is a proud sponsor of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams through 2004 and was a sponsor of the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. In March 2002, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Home Depot announced that the company would increase its hiring of athletes, aiming to employ a total of 204 Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls by the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.