Transcript of Gov. Schwarzenegger Speaking at California Olympic Celebration

Time: 11 a.m.
Date: Monday, September 8, 2008
Event: Remarks, California Olympic Medalist Celebration, Rotunda, State Capitol Sacramento, CA

All righty, great job. Let's give everyone a nice round of applause. Great job out there. (Applause) All right. We're going to take a little time and let some of these other elementary school kids come in and grab a seat. This is a great function here today. We're going to let everyone get in.

Good morning and thank everyone. We're here to celebrate with some of our California-based Olympian champions. It's a great honor for me to M.C. this morning's event and take part in this ceremony and welcome back our California Olympians from the Beijing games. Our Honorable Governor Schwarzenegger - (Applause) And the main reason we're here is Governor Schwarzenegger wanted to invite these Olympians to the Capitol so we all can celebrate with them.

First we would like to have our National Anthem played by the members of the California National Guard, so we can all stand up, please and let our California National Guard take it.

(NATIONAL ANTHEM)

MASTER OF CEREMONIES:

All right. Let's all grab a seat. Thank you. Thank you very much to the men and women of the California National Guard. You are true champions as well.

You know, the spirit of California and the Olympics is truly a wonderful thing. Today we are blessed to have nine super athletes, who call California home, with us. We also have a family and coach representing one of our Olympians who couldn't make it with us today but are here on his behalf.

You know, Sacramento has produced several Olympians over the years and today we are lucky to have one of them as our special guest. Debbie Meyer is the first woman to ever win three gold medals in swimming. She did it during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Debbie is a very remarkable woman and will share with us a few words. Help me bring Debbie Meyer to the mic. (Applause)

DEBBIE MEYER:

Thank you, Del. It is so great to see so many young people here celebrating such an honorable day today. Forty years ago - hard to believe - I was here in the Capitol, in the Governor's office but I didn't get a crowd like this. It was Governor Reagan and I. And I've got to tell you, I stole his jelly beans. I ate them right out of his little container.

But we're honoring our California Olympians and we have a few of them here today. And for you young kids down there, it takes a lot of desire, a lot of determination and lots of dedication to become a great athlete and you have some of the greatest athletes in the world here today. If you have a dream, work to achieve that dream. You may fall down along the way but that's ok. Get back up and start working again, because we learn from our mistakes. So just have that desire, have that determination and that dedication and you guys can be successful no matter what you do.

And congratulations to my family members now, the 19 - 19? Yeah, right. 2008 - 2008 Olympians. (Applause)

MASTER OF CEREMONIES:

Thank you very much, Debbie. Thank you very much. Now, I really didn't hear you guys, because this ear I can't hear good and that one doesn't work. So one more time, let's hear it for our 2008 Beijing champions. (Applause)

There we go. There we go. All righty. Now, when I introduce this next person you've got to be louder than that. So you've got your first true peer competition. You've got to be louder than you just have been loud, okay? Can I hear you? Do you hear me? Ok.

Now I'd like to introduce our next guest. I'm pretty sure everybody knows who he is, however, he is a champion in what he has accomplished in his life. From his days as Mr. Olympia in bodybuilding to being in over 40 movies - I did my homework on this guy last night - he's now our 38th Governor of California. Ladies, gentlemen and all you kids out there, it's my honor and pleasure to introduce to you a champion for the people, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Applause)

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for this great applause, I really appreciate it. And welcome, all of you, here to our State Capitol and to this wonderful rotunda.

Thank you thank very much, Del, for doing such a great job as M.C. and I want to thank Debbie also for being here today and all of you. And I want to thank also Secretary of State George Schultz and Charlotte, his wonderful wife. Let's give them a big hand for being here today. (Applause) And then we have many other elected officials here, we want to thank them all for coming here.

And I think it's great that so many kids showed up here today, because I know that all of you have dreams and all of you want to accomplish great things in life. And I always say there is nothing that is greater than seeing Olympic champions right in front of you and be able to meet them and shake their hands afterwards when we are through here. I mean, this is really great. They are a great inspiration.

And for me, it's great to have them here because I think that all of us have watched those 14 days from August 8th on, the Olympic Games. And we saw every day, when we watched at night especially, we saw the American athletes win and win and win and win. And guess who have won the most medals of any state in the United States? Now, the United States in number one, we had the most medals with 110 medals altogether. But the most medals were won by which state?

CROWD:

California!

GOVERNOR:

Exactly, by California, California athletes. Let's give them a big, big hand. (Applause) And, of course, California prides itself on being number one in so many different things, if it is in biotechnology, having the best university system in the world, or high technology, green technology and the list goes on and on. But we also have the greatest athletes in the world right here in our state and this is really wonderful and I just want to say thank you.

And we are all here today to celebrate and then we're going to hand out some plaques afterwards to each one of the athletes. We want to say thank you to them and we want to show our gratitude and our appreciation and our inspiration and everything that they have done for this great, great state, because when they were over there at the Olympics is was not just about winning medals but they were great ambassadors representing the United States and representing our state so well and so we want to just say thank you to them.

And also thank them for being an inspiration also to all of us to stay fit. I don't know about you but I many times was sitting on my LifeCycle doing my exercise and watching their great performances. It gives you this extra 10, 15 minutes and you pedal all of a sudden a little faster when you see those great athletes doing their rowing and their boxing and their fencing and the baseball and the softball and all of those kinds of things. So I got inspired by that.

But what is most important is not just guys like me and women of my age but the young kids. You get inspired by that, because every one of the people that you talk to today that is successful, they always go and refer back to some person, that there was a very important person that had an impact on them and, because of that, they were successful. And so I think that this is great inspiration for all those kids to have those athletes here.

And I want to urge the athletes to think about that and to maybe go around in the next few months, or the next few years, around to the schools in California. Go around to the schools and talk to the kids and tell them the secret of what you went through, the sacrifices that you had to make to become a champion and a medal winner, the kind of dedication that you put in, the hours of work and always focusing on that goal.

I think that has such important lessons for our kids, to stay away from drugs and to stay away from alcohol and to stay away from smoking, because that's not how you become a champion but by training hard and working hard. And the same is also with the mind. The more you train that mind the better you will be off and the smarter you will get.

So again, I want to say thank you very much to the great athletes. And now let's hand out some plaques. Thank you very much. Let's give them a big hand again. (Applause)

MASTER OF CEREMONIES:

Okay. Now, I've got one question. Since we have some students here, I've got a little test for you. The Governor has just told you what state won the most medals at the Olympics. So, I'm going to test you. On three, I want to hear that state and I want to hear you say it from the bottom of your stomach. On three, I want to know the state that won the most medals at the Beijing Olympics. One, two, three!

CROWD:

California! (Applause)

MASTER OF CEREMONIES:

But the problem was, I didn't hear you. Remember, this one doesn't work and I can't hear good in this one. So what is the state? One, two three!

CROWD:

California! (Applause)

MASTER OF CEREMONIES:

Beautiful. Now, let's honor our California-based athletes from the Beijing games. Each athlete will receive a beautiful plaque and I'm going to quote and read the inscription that's on the plaque. It reads: "You made all Californians and Americans proud. Thank you for representing us like the true champion you are."

Now, the plaque also has the Governor's gold seal on it. Yeah, that's kind of cool. That's kind of cool.

The first to receive the special Governor's plaque in California Olympian Erin Cafaro. Erin won the gold medal in rowing and her hometown is Modesto. Erin? (Applause)

Now let's invite California Olympian Mary Whipple up. Mary also won the gold medal in rowing. Her hometown is right here in the area, Orangevale. (Applause)

Next up is California Olympian Heather Bown. Heather won the silver medal in women's volleyball. Heather's hometown is Yorba Linda. (Applause)

Our next California Olympian is Natalie Golda. Natalie won a silver medal in women's water polo. Her hometown is Fullerton. (Applause)

The next California Olympian is Heather Petri. Heather won a silver medal in women's water polo. Heather's hometown is Orinda. (Applause)

Staying with water polo, let me introduce California Olympian Jeff Powers. Jeff won a silver medal in men's water polo. Jeff's hometown is San Luis Obispo. (Applause)

Our next California Olympian is Gina Miles. Gina won a silver medal in equestrian. Gina's hometown is just down the road in Davis. (Applause)

Next is California Olympian Larsen Jensen. Larsen won a bronze medal in swimming. His hometown is Bakersfield. (Applause)

Our next Olympic champion is John Gall. John won a bronze medal in baseball. His hometown is Milpitas. (Applause)

Our last California Olympian is James Williams. Now, James couldn't be with us today so he sent his mom and his coach on his behalf. John won a silver medal in fencing. His hometown is the capital of California, Sacramento. (Applause)

All right. I want everybody that has a flag to stand up and give a nice round of applause to our California Olympians and their families. (Applause)