U.S. Gold Medal Athlete and Former McDonald's™ Crew Member, Amy Van Dyken, To Meet McDonald's™ International Crew

Amy Van Dyken, five-time Olympic gold medallist and former McDonald's crew member will greet members of McDonald's International Crew, at McDonald's International Zone Restaurant in the Olympic Village when she stops by on September 23 at 12:00 p.m. for lunch. Fans can ask Van Dyken about her experiences as an Olympian and former McDonald's crew member during a live web chat from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, September 23 on mcdonalds.com.

During the Olympic Games, 1,300 McDonald's crew and managers will staff McDonald's Olympic venue restaurants, including 73 representatives from 19 countries outside of Australia including the U.S., Greece, Finland, Hong Kong and Uruguay. At the venue, members of the Australian crew will train crew from the U.S. and Greece as they prepare for the 2002 and 2004 Games in their countries, respectively.

"I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share my experiences as an Olympian with people from around the world through the online chat on McDonald's website," said Van Dyken. "As a former McDonald's crew member, I also am looking forward to speaking with the International crew. I hope to inspire them to pursue their dreams."

"Just as the world's top athletes have traveled to Sydney to compete, some of our best crew are here representing McDonald's doing what they do best -- serving burgers with a smile in any language," said Dean Barrett, vice president, McDonald's Global Marketing. "The reality is that there are many people like Amy, who started as McDonald's crew and have gone on to achieve greatness. We hope our consumers and crew can learn from her experiences through this web chat."

The on-line chat with Van Dyken is the third in a series of athlete web chats. The first featured Grant Hill a member of the 1996 Olympic Basketball Dream Team and the second featured nine-time Olympian Carl Lewis. When visitors log onto http://www.mcdonalds.com/ and click on the Olympics icon, they will find Olympic news from around the world, interactive games featuring Olympic mascots and McDonaldland characters, and links to other major Olympic-related websites.

McDonald's is the world's largest global foodservice retailer with more than 28,000 restaurants serving nearly 43 million people each day in 119 countries. More than 85 percent of McDonald's restaurants around the world are owned and operated by independent, local businessmen and women.

NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990916/MCDLOGO

AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/

PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 201-369-3467

SOURCE: McDonald's Corporation

Contact: In the United States, Julie Monzo of McDonald's, 630-623-6049,
email, julie.monzo@mcd.com, or In Australia, McDonald's Media Hotline,
61 133 623; or Cindy Pettersen of Burson Marsteller for McDonald's,
312-596-3494, email, cynthia_pettersen@chi.bm.com

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.com/