Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games

Ready, Set, Gold! is a community health, fitness and social and emotional learning (SEL) program that promotes healthy and active lifestyles to children in Southern California schools. RSG! believes that every student should have equal access to resources that support physical and mental health, and academic achievement.

Ready, Set, Gold!, (RSG!) the only program of its kind in the country, tackles the epidemic problems of childhood obesity and diabetes by pairing Olympians and Paralympians with 50 Los Angeles area public schools, 96% of which are Title 1 in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The RSG! mission is to increase the state-mandated Fitnessgram scores and promote student fitness, nutrition and a healthy lifetime lifestyle in the 5th, 7th and 9th grade physical education classes which are required to take the Fitnessgram test annually. Each Olympian/Paralympian is matched to a specific school and meets with their students five - six times during the school year to inspire, educate, empower, and motivate them toward a long and healthy life. Like tobacco cessation and seat belt use, this is a long-term problem we are addressing. According to the LA Department of Public Health in 2007, over 440,500 of LAUSD's 5th, 7th and 9th graders were obese (having too much body fat). Obese children have a greater likelihood of developing risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease which often follow children into adulthood. Some populations are at higher risk: low-income individuals, African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans which reflect the LAUSD student population: 73% Latino, 11% Black/African, 9% White, 4% Asian and 3% American Indian/Native American. In addition to the above health disparities, LAUSD has cut back on physical education (PE) in elementary schools, decreased the number of credentialed PE teachers and increased PE class sizes to 40-50-60 students. RSG! was designed to supplement and operate in existing PE classes for the 5th, 7th and 9th graders with teachers and Olympians providing the encouragement and drive to be knowledgeable about health, fitness and nutrition as important elements toward a long and healthy life. What starts in these early years imparts a commitment to a permanent and enduring dedication to high-quality health as a responsibility.