Athletes and First Lady visit D.C. Schools

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The excitement on the children’s faces brightly lit up the room on an otherwise dreary day in Washington, D.C., when a select group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes accompanied First Lady Michelle Obama to River Terrace Elementary School on April 21, where the first lady promoted her “Let’s Move!” initiative.

According to the first lady, a large issue facing the nation today is childhood obesity, which can be attributed to poor nutrition and a lack of physical activity.  The “Let’s Move!” campaign is geared toward encouraging young kids to participate in at least 60 minutes of active play per day, and who better to help Mrs. Obama drive that message home than the Olympic and Paralympic athletes who also spoke of the Olympic ideals of excellence, friendship, fair play and respect.

“Let’s Move! is a campaign to try to make sure that kids grow up eating healthy, getting enough exercise so that you all grow up to be strong enough to be Olympians, or to go to college or to do whatever you want in life,” Mrs. Obama said, addressing the kids.

The Vancouver athletes who attended with Mrs. Obama were gold medalist Paralympic alpine skier Alana Nichols, Paralympian alpine skier Heath Calhoun, and Olympic gold medalists speedskater Shani Davis and moguls skier Hannah Kearney.

Each of them used the opportunity to tell the kids a little about their sport and why health, nutrition and fitness are so important in their lives.

Nichols, who is in a wheelchair, told the kids, “Exercises are really important for me because I can’t run, so I need to do as much as I can with my upper body so that I work as much as I can to burn the calories, right?

“I like to eat healthy and I work out very often, and hopefully we can do some of that a little later,” said Nichols, who did in fact lead the kids in an exercise of waving their arms following the athlete speeches.

Before the athletes spoke, the elementary students welcomed their guests by performing their weekly affirmation and giving the athletes their tiger roar.  The vigor of the roar in particular was quite enough to impress the athletes.

“If you guys can take that energy and put it in to your moving around during the day, you’re going to be some fit, healthy children,” Kearney encouraged. 

After she told the children a bit about what a moguls skier does, and what goes into the health and nutrition regimen of a moguls skier, she also encouraged the kids to surround themselves with people who are supportive and care about their success.  It was a point echoed by the first lady, who added it is so important for the kids to involve their parents in the campaign because the parents make the nutritional decisions for the family, and that the country wants parents to be healthy too.  She said it was also important for the country to provide the parents with the resources to make good nutrition possible.

“We want your parents to have better information about the foods you need,” Mrs. Obama began.  “We want to make sure that you live in communities where your parents have access to really healthy foods that they can afford.”

Before leaving, Mrs. Obama and the athletes made the kids promise to try and eat fruits and vegetables everyday, to turn off the TV and move everyday, and to not eat as many sweets.  While the kids gave enthusiastic “Yes” answers to the first two, the last was cause for a bit of a pause, causing the first lady and the room to laugh.

“That’s always the tough one,” she joked.

However, under the laughter was still the serious message that being active and eating healthy can be a big challenge, but that good habits are easier to form for them now.

Added Davis, “It really starts at a young age, and if I can tell you guys anything about longevity and living a healthy life through excellence it would be, please start now.”

After speaking, the athletes took the opportunity to sign autographs for the kids.  Each of them were mobbed, but hugs and awe were abundant when the athletes let the kids see and touch their medals.

All the athletes encouraged that if the kids stay active and healthy, it was entirely possible that one day the kids could be holding medals of their own.