Michelle Obama has a goal to get more of America’s kids involved in sports. Our First Lady is well aware of the nation’s propensity for overweight children and is avidly interested in getting them away from the screens and outside on the fields. Mrs. Obama is serious about this, as she is now partnered with The Partnership for a Healthier America and the U.S. Olympic Committee to start changing the behaviors of America’s kids. She announced the new “Let’s Move!” program at a meeting with athletes from the two dozen Olympic and Paralympic groups.
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Serena Williams: The lady that brought pizzazz to tennis
The world of tennis has traditionally been more of a western sport, led by mostly those that followed protocol and propriety. While there have been exceptions to this rule, they were few and far between. Serena Williams, on the other hand slammed onto the court with a sense of style like no other and a personality that made everyone smile. As an African American woman, she changed the face of tennis and at the same time, elevated it to a sport that now had that ‘wow’ factor.
Serena’s parents moved their entire family to a suburb area of Los Angeles when she was very young. Her father was a tennis fan and envisioned his daughters to be tennis champions. He surrounded his five daughters with video tapes and books and even began teaching his wife and himself how to play, so that he could instruct his girls. Serena and Venus Williams demonstrated the most talent and Richard Williams had Serena entered into a competition when she was only four and a half years old. In the following five years she was entered into forty nine competitions, winning forty six of them.
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Althea Gibson: Breaking the boundaries in women’s tennis
Althea Gibson has her place in history as the first African American woman to win multiple international women’s tennis championships. In a time when tennis was represented by a small few, Gibson blasted forth as not only a woman of sports excellence, but an example to other African American athletes that success and achieving your dream is possible.
In today’s world, it’s difficult to believe that African Americans had such a tough road in sports. In the 1950’s, almost every state in the U.S. separated every aspect of life between ‘white and black’. African Americans were considered second class citizens and sports was no exception.
Althea’s background was from a poor Harlem family. It wasn’t until her talent was brought to the attention of Dr. Walter Johnson, an individual that promoted tennis in the community of African Americans, that Gibson saw a glimmer of hope. Dr. Johnson became Gibson’s patron and with his help she achieved some of the best tennis instruction and ability to enter higher competition levels.
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