Queens Olympians

The presence of our borough will be felt in Australia during the course of the 2000 Olympics Games. Four athletes are there to go for the bronze, silver, and the gold.
• Arlene Stevens, 19, lives in Fresh Meadows. She is competing in the fencing competition. She is 5’11," 145-pounds. This is her first Olympics.
• George Hirocapie, 26, was born and raised in Queens and currently lives in Charlotte, N.C. He is entered in the cycling competition. He is 6’3," 185 pounds. He participated in two previous Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 and in Atlanta in 1996.
• Chamanique Holdsclaw, 22, was born in Flushing and raised in Astoria. She is a 6’2," 166 pound foward on the women’s basketball team.
• Kevin Han of Ridgewood is competing in the badminton singles.
In addition, there is another individual who had a distinctive presence in Queens this past spring and summer. Eddie Rodriguez, third base coach of the American baseball team at the Olympics, just completed the season as the head coach of the Queens Kings, the borough’s only minor league professional baseball team which just completed their season.
Rodriguez appeared on The Queens Courier’s TV program Queens on the Air and discussed how proud he is to have come from Havana, Cuba to become affiliated with the Queens Kings, and then to get the Olympic designation. "I was shocked," Rodriguez said. "It’s certainly the biggest honor I have ever received."