Contact: Lisa Deffendall • First Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010

Olympians with Lexington ties – diver Micki King and sprinter Tyson Gay – will be on hand Monday April 5 to welcome students at Beaumont and Winburn middle schools into the “World Fit … Olympians for Worldwide Fitness” program.

The brainchild of Olympian Gary Hall Sr., World Fit tries to tackle childhood obesity by helping middle-schoolers get in the habit of daily exercise. 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, who is training for the 2012 Olympics in London.  Gay, a Lexington native, attended Winburn Middle School as a youngster.

King, who won a gold medal in diving in 1972, is responsible for bringing the World Fit program to Lexington. World Fit was first piloted in Miami last year, and the two Fayette County Public Schools will be among roughly 15 others across the country expanding the initiative this spring. The Lexington Rotary Club covered the cost of bringing Gay home for the kickoff.

Media note:

Students at both schools will interact with King and Gay throughout the morning and afternoon of April 5. Rather than a formal media event, the two athletes will talk with the students in an assembly about the program and take questions from the audience.

• Beaumont Middle School: 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  (Beginning at 11 a.m., Tyson Gay will walk with eighth-graders to kick off the program.)
• Winburn Middle School: 1 to 3:30 p.m.