Olympian Tyson Gay Kicks Off Fitness Program at Lexington Middle Schools

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Olympic athletes with ties to Lexington will help kick off the “WORLD FIT … Olympians for Worldwide Fitness” program at Beaumont and Winburn middle schools on April 5.

Diver Micki King and sprinter Tyson Gay are helping get middle-schoolers into the habit of daily exercise and fight childhood obesity through the WORLD FIT program.

Beginning the first day back from Spring Break, students at Beaumont and Winburn will carve out 45 minutes from their daily routines to walk a predetermined route on campus.

“There is big talk and little do about childhood obesity, and we’ve decided to take action,” King said. “Our goal is very simple. We’re not trying to create Olympians. We just want to get kids outdoors and moving. This program is affordable, achievable and sustainable.”

The miles the students walk will be logged daily – the goal is for students to “walk” from Lexington to London, England. Their route will take them through every Olympic host city since 1996 – beginning with Atlanta.

Their efforts will support the current Olympic dreams of Gay, the U.S. record-holder at 100 meters who competed in the Bejing Games and is training for the 2012 Olympics in London. Gay, a Lexington native, attended Winburn Middle and Lafayette High schools.

King, who won a gold medal in diving in 1972, is responsible for bringing the WORLD FIT program to Lexington schools. WORLD FIT is the brainchild of Olympian Gary Hall Sr., and was first piloted in Miami last year.

The two Fayette County public schools will be among roughly 15 others across the country expanding the initiative this spring.

Students will get to talk with King and Gay at the schools throughout the morning of April 5. The athletes will also address the schools at an assembly that afternoon.