Competing for the gold is not enough for U.S. Olympic rower and Penn alumnus Tom Paradiso. Thanks to his partnership with an environmental organization, Paradiso will use his platform to promote environmental awareness through the most subtle of fashion accessories - his shoelaces.
In cooperation with GreenLaces, an organization committed to unifying environmentally conscious individuals and reducing harm to the environment, Paradiso will wear green shoelaces in and around the Olympic Village in Beijing.
"I am not an extreme environmentalist, but I am the type of person who picks up recyclables off the ground or out of the trash and puts them in the recycling bin," Paradiso said in an e-mail. "I have long-lasting light bulbs in my house and carpool with my teammates to practice. So I would say I have been concerned about the environment and GreenLaces is one way to be a little more active in my concern."
He first heard about the program from co-founder Joanna Lohman - a professional soccer player in Sweden - who he met at an Olympic Ambassador Program in San Francisco in February.
Shortly after she met Paradiso, Lohman caught up with an old friend whom she had played with on National teams, Natalie Spilger. Spilger told Lohman of her idea to create a unifying environmental movement. The two, along with Mike Zuckerman, founded GreenLaces and chose to promote the organization primarily through athletes.
"GreenLaces is essentially a movement of people who are fans of the planet and care about the planet," Lohman said. "Especially we do it through athletes because we feel like athletes are icons and have stronger influences on the community than a normal individual."
She was quick to add, though, that anyone can join GreenLaces. The program consists of individuals purchasing the one-hundred percent recyclable green shoelaces and making promise to change one aspect of their lives.
That way, Lohman says, helping combat complex environmental issues such as global warming is shown as simple and manageable for individuals.
Thus far, the program has spread to about 1,000 individuals who are wearing the green shoelaces, partially for promotional purposes. Among that group are about 22-50 Olympic athletes, including Paradiso.
"I have worked to promote the movement among my teammates by talking to them and telling them about GreenLaces," he said. "As rowers, we do almost all of our training outdoors and the environment is something we see and interact with every day. When the air is bad we notice it; when there is a ton of trash and debris in the lake, it is something that affects us."
The movement is picking up steam. Spilger says that pressure is on the organization to become a foundation and that is likely the direction in which they will eventually head.
For now, though, the GreenLaces founders are focusing on increasing visibility and respect among the environmental and athletic communities. Spilger says that it is an especially important year for this cause due to the media attention given to high pollution levels in Beijing.
"Giving GreenLaces a strong foothold in the Olympics as a separate grassroots organization will give it clout moving forward," she said. "The future could just be Livestrong is for cancer research and GreenLaces is for the environment."
And with help from Paradiso and Olympians like him, such a goal doesn't seem so lofty.
