Patrick “Packy” Mader is excited to present Minnesota’s rich Olympic sports history and information on Faribault native and former 800-meter indoors world recordholder Ted Nelson to Faribault Rotary Club members. His books, Minnesota Gold and More Minnesota Gold, highlight the stories, lives, challenges, perseverance, and achievements of more than 100 remarkable living Minnesota athletes who competed at the international level–including people from a cross-section of sports from 1948 – present.

Packy will be highlighting Olympians and World Championship participants with connections to southern Minnesota as he shares the positive experience throughout his research, in-person interviews, writing, and editing in an engaging and entertaining style. Others profiled in the two books are sprinter Mark Lutz and hockey player Jim Johannson of Rochester; wrestler Gary Neist of Albert Lea; basketball players Lindsay Whalen from Hutchinson and Burdette Haldorson of Austin who each played on two gold-medal winning teams; hockey legends John Mayasich, Tim Sheehy, and Henry Bouca; boxer Duane Bobick; and five-time Olympian speedskater Amy Peterson. The Olympians were approachable, intelligent, articulate, and modest–demonstrating Olympian character and qualities who “give back” to their sport, community, and school.

Ted Nelson of Faribault competed internationally; boxer Duane Bobick was in the 1972 Olympics; Amy Peterson was a three-time medalist and five-time Olympian.