Olympic Class
Former Olympians Bob Beamon & Michael Bennett talked about the value of healthy competition.
My assignment for our extensive Fox Chicago coverage of the Chicago Olympic bid had me on the South Side this morning, Reavis Elementary School is just steps away from Washington Park where an Olympic Stadium would’ve been built for the 2016 summer games. It is not to be.
Before the devastating news of Chicago’s ouster in the first round of IOC voting, nearly 400 kids heard from former Olympians Bob Beamon and Michael Bennett. Beamon won gold in the long jump at the ’68 games in Mexico City and Bennett was captain of the US Olympic boxing team during the 2000 games in Sydney.
Reavis students cheer for the winning city, Rio de Janiero!
A viewing party was planned and timed for the big announcement just before lunchtime. No one expected Chicago to get voted out before the kids would even make it to the school auditorium. As the news spread through the school, Principal Michael Johnson decided to go ahead with the assembly as a Chicago Public School official told me, “This is an ideal teaching moment,”
When I asked student Nicholas Holas what he learned from the entire process, he was smiling as he said, “You win some, you lose some. It’s only important that you do your best.” Chicago is already a city of winners.
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