Wednesday, October 20, 1999
Mayors, Olympians have message for kids: Get fit
Program urges healthy habits
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As Olympic gold medalist Lucinda Adams led a group of girls in a fancy rope-jumping session on the playground at Washington Park Elementary Tuesday, one girl said she couldn't do it.
“Yes, you can. Don't ever say you can't do it,” Ms. Adams, of Dayton, Ohio, told the girl.
Ms. Adams knows a thing or two about success. She won the gold medal in the 4x100 relay during the 1960 Olympic games in Rome. During that race, she passed the baton to the great Wilma Rudolph.
Achieving success was just one of the messages Ms. Adams and four fellow Olympians brought, along with educators and politicians, to about 200 fourth through sixthgraders from St. Joseph Elementary and Washington Park Elementary schools.
But the main message at the kick-off of the Mayors' USA Olympikids For Fitness Program was: Get fit, stay fit and develop lifelong health habits.
Cincinnati is only the second city to implement the program founded last year by Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini after she noticed a high number of overweight and inactive children.
Ms. Corradini said American kids are in “terrible shape,” and challenged the students to watch one hour less TV per night, cut down on fatty foods and run at least a mile a day.
Obese children between 10 and 13 are six times as likely to become overweight adults, and childhood obesity has been linked to stroke and cancer as an adult, according to the Greater Cincinnati Sports Corp.
When Ms. Corradini and the Olympians led the students in a jog around the playground, a few students stopped to complain of pain and shortness of breath.
Nick Vehr, president of Cin cinnati 2012 Inc., said the program will initially involve Cincinnati Public Schools, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Diocese of Northern Kentucky. The program will be expanded to any interested schools.
Kadidthra Criswell, 11, said she had fun Tuesday. Even better, the Washington Park fifth-grader said, she learned “that if you try (to become fit), you can do it. You can do other things instead of being lazy and sitting on the couch.”
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