DeKalb County attracts Olympic athletes for training

DECATUR - DeKalb County officials say 10 nations have agreed to send 50 Olympic athletes to train in track and field, soccer and swimming for the 2004 and 2008 games. <br> <br> The athletes will live at the county-owned Brook Run property in Dunwoody and train at facilities in south DeKalb, at Georgia Tech and possibly at Emory University. They will attend DeKalb County high schools or area colleges and universities during their stays, which will begin this summer. <br> <br> The athletes also will train with local students interested in competing in future Olympics, DeKalb officials said. <br> <br> A nonprofit agency called Forging New Tomorrows has raised $1 million for the effort and will pay for the education and travel of the athletes, said its chairman, Marc Daniel Gutekunst. <br> <br> ``Here we&#39;ll provide them a structured program where they can focus on education and training,&#39;&#39; Gutekunst said. <br> <br> He and DeKalb County officials are in the process of acquiring approval for the project from the International Olympic Committee. <br> <br> Gutekunst, a native of Rwanda, said countries that have agreed to send athletes to train at the DeKalb center are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eritrea, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mali, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and the Seychelles Islands.