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An Olympic Mom at Let’s Move! London

Posted by Dara Torres on August 06, 2012

Ed note: This guest post was provided by Dara Torres, who competed in five Olympic games and won 12 medals for Team USA. 

My daughter Tessa and I really had such an amazing experience traveling to London together for the first week of the Olympics. Although I was hoping to be there as an athlete (having just missed making the team by nine one hundredths of a second), it was still fun to be there as a spectator.

When we talk about all the wonderful things we did over there, the one thing that stands out in both our minds was the Let's Move event put on by the First Lady and Nickelodeon.

When we first walked into the event in the backyard of the US Embassy house, music was playing, and kids were running around the lawn and playing at all the fun stations set up for them (3 legged races, tennis, soccer, basketball, tug a war). As a Mom and an athlete, to me it's great to see kids being so active and having so much fun while being active, and Let's Move did an awesome job of accomplishing that.

I of course also enjoyed seeing and meeting the other Olympians that were there also to help support this campaign. I kept making Tessa take pictures with all of them (Apollo Ono, Carl Lewis, Nastia Luikin, David Beckham to name a few) which she wasn't thrilled about, but the minute she saw the Power Rangers she couldn't wait to get a picture with them!

Tessa usually doesn't like to be in the spotlight so when I asked her to come up on stage with me and the other Olympians, "no mom" couldn't come out of her mouth quick enough. But when I told her the Fist Lady would be up there giving a speech about the importance of staying active and eating healthy she ran into my arms and said "I want to go!". She's learned a lot about the President and First Lady in kindergarten and I think the First Lady trumped the Power Rangers!!

Teaching kids about sports was such a great idea to bring the spirit of the Olympics to the Let's Move event. It's a memory Tessa and I shared together and will have the rest of our lives.