Olympians, Austin elementary students aim to be Marathon Kids

Olympians and top athletes stood side-by-side with students on the track at Oak Springs Elementary, Thursday morning.

Fifth grader Marques Amador, relieved to be outside running around rather than in the classroom, said, “I’m happy because they came out today.” His takeaway: Olympians are fast and give a lot of effort.

Amanda Bingson, who was in the 2012 Olympic Games competing in the hammer throw, said, “You can never start too early, you know, with doing good habits. And so we come out here, play with the kids, just kind of expose them to everything that they should be doing… as living a healthy lifestyle.”

A non-profit that got its own start in Austin, Marathon Kids organized the event. It’s a running and walking program for primarily elementary-age kids. The program, along with the U.S. Track and Field Foundation, gets students to meet and run with athletes from the top of their respective sports.

Marathon Kids encourages students to run 104.8 miles in a school year, or 26.2 miles every quarter — roughly the length of a marathon.

Since the organization started 20 years ago, three million students have ran the length of a marathon during the school year.

More games: friv

Amanda Bingson

I'll be honest I enjoy these Games more than the Olympic Games. Good luck my Budweiser Teammates Melissa Stockwell and Richard Brown and of course David.

American Track and Field Superstar Amanda Bingson Is a Winner in our Book

What makes a winner? “Champions aren’t made in the gyms,”Muhammad Ali famously said. “Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision.”

2014 U.S. Outdoor Hammer Throw champion Amanda Bingson didn’t make the Olympic team last week at the women’s hammer throw trials. (She finished in fourth place and only the top three are selected to go to Rio.) But Bingson is a winner in our book. On her Instagram she posted the quote, “One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.”

Not only does she remain devoted to track and field, the 26-year-old top female hammer thrower is also committed to promoting body positivity. She inspired many people when she posed nude on ESPN The Magazine’sbody issue. “It’s important to show that athletes come in all shapes and sizes,” says Bingson who has the World Championships in London next year. “It’s not about what you look like. It’s about being comfortable in your skin and with who you are — knowing you are worth more than what people may see.”

Bingson was one of handpicked athletes to be on Team Budweiser. In fact, Budweiser partnered with six elite athletes — from a decathlete to a Paralympic triathlete to a gold medalist in women’s soccer — as part of the brand’s sponsorship of the Olympic and Paralympic 2016 Team USA. She recently chatted with Parade about body love and what keeps her motivated.

We love your message of body positivity.

It is a hard thing to love your body. You can say you love your body and you love yourself, but to actually believe it, is hard. It’s not overnight. It’s not a quick fix. But then once you do and appreciate what you have, the opportunities and what you can accomplish is endless. One of the biggest hurdles in life, is being OK and loving yourself.

What’s the best part about what you do?

The best part about having this track career is meeting all the people who I have met in my journey. I have made so many new connections. I couldn’t have ever dreamed of them. Also, partnering with Budweiser and getting that extra team motivation is phenomenal. Tack and field is a very individualized sport. To have a team like Budweiser with me just makes it so much better.

For example, Melissa Stockwell who’s also part of Team Budweiser is one of the coolest, most down-to-earth, genuine people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. [The first female soldier in U.S. history to lose a limb in active combat, Stockwell competed as a swimmer in the 2008 Paralympic games and will compete at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.] I’m very connected to the veteran community and supportive of our Army. What she’s done and her attitude about everything makes me take a step back and appreciate everything that I have.

When did you know track and field was for you?

The moment I discovered track and field was in high school. I played in a band and one of my bandmates told me to try out for the track team. I said, ‘No. I don’t want to be a thrower. There are all these stigmas about throwers and track and field. They’re lazy and just trying to get out of PE.’ I thought, I’m going to go do softball because that was something my mom did. And then I went to track practice and lo and behold, I saw these gorgeous men running around. I thought why would I want to hang around with a bunch of girls? It’s been track and field ever since.

What keeps you going day after day?

That I’m not the best. What motivates me is I know that there’s somebody out there who is better than me. And I know what I am capable of doing.

Also, I refuse to let a number be better than me. People are so fixated on numbers. How much do you eat? What size pants do you wear? How much do you make? How old are you? It’s important to recognize you are better than that. Don’t let that number define you.

Amanda Bingson

Budweiser never disappoints! Had a great time in New York showing off team Bud to the world. 

Ashley Graham, Amanda Bingson and others lead Swimsuitsforall campaign encouraging body positivity

Online retailer Swimsuitsforall, which specializes in superior, well fitting swimwear for curvy women, has launched its summer campaign, hashtagged #MySwimBody.
   Modelled by Sports Illustrated 2016 Swimsuit Issue cover girl Ashley Graham, activist and model Philomena Kwao, 56-year-old silver fox Nicola Griffin, photographer and mother Jessica Lavoie, and professional athlete and Olympian Amanda Bingson, the campaign kicks off with a video, designed to make women feel empowered, removing the dread many feel when shopping for swimwear.
   Swimsuitsforall wants to encourage women to share a photo of themselves on social media with the #MySwimBody hashtag, proudly showing off their curves, challenge a friend to do the same—with the aim of having 10,000 women take up the cause, regardless of their shape, age or size.
   Graham said in a release, ‘I love bikini season, and I hope the #MySwimBody movement helps every woman feel confident and sexy this summer. I’ll be sharing selfies of my swim body all season long and hope that women across the country feel inspired to do the same.
   ‘Beauty is beyond size, and we are calling on women everywhere to embrace their curves, especially at the beach or by the pool.’
   ‘This is the summer of #MySwimBody, when we are encouraging all women to let go of their inhibitions and lose the cover up at the beach,’ said Moshe Laniado, CEO and president of Swimsuitsforall. ‘Swimsuitsforall celebrates all different body types and we’re so proud to once again be leading a movement that inspires women everywhere to feel confident and comfortable in a swimsuit this summer.’

Follow me on Snap to see the rest of the adventure from the Budweiser brewhouse.

UNLV women's track squad eyeing national strides

Since becoming the UNLV women's track and field coach in 2007, two-time Olympian Yvonne Wade has made steady progress in transforming the Rebels into winners on and off the track.

Wade has guided UNLV to academic All-American honors (team GPA of 3.0 or higher) in five of the last six years, and the Rebels produced U.S. Olympic hammer thrower Amanda Bingson, a Silverado High School product, on her watch.

"It took a while to change the culture and recruit the type of student-athletes we needed to change the overall program," said Wade, an NCAA All-American at the University of Colorado who competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta and in 2000 in Sydney.

"First and foremost for me was changing the academic culture," she said. "Now we're at the point where we can start recruiting higher-caliber athletes and go after the same student-athletes that some of the bigger (Southeastern Conference) and (Atlantic Coast Conference) schools get."

Wade has high hopes for the Rebels this season, led by junior newcomer Kaysee Pilgrim, who won three junior college national titles in the high jump at Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz.; senior Auzsane Crowe-Carter, the two-time defending 800-meter Mountain West champion; and sophomore Drea Austin, the team's high scorer at last year's Mountain West championship and one of 11 local products on the squad.

"Our goal definitely is to win our conference, which we do have the athletes able to do that, and to be ranked nationally," Wade said. "I'm excited about it. We have good energy on our team, we're really focused and we work hard."

UNLV opened its indoor season in impressive fashion, winning six events Friday at Northern Arizona University. Pilgrim made a dynamic debut for the Rebels, winning the high jump with a school-record indoor mark of 5 feet 10¾ inches. The junior tied the junior college outdoor high jump record last year with a leap of 6 feet 1¼ inches.

"If she can do that, she should be able to win our conference and be nationally ranked," Wade said. "She's a fierce competitor and she works hard at it."

Austin, a sprinter from Foothill High School, won the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes in Friday's meet and excelled outdoors last season for UNLV in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays.

"She's just a beast. We call her 'The Hunter' because every time she gets on the track, she goes after somebody," Wade said. "If anyone can pull the team together, it's her. She just stepped up as a leader her freshman year. She's just fearless."

UNLV also features local products Mandy Chitwood (Canyon Springs), Micayla Coquia (Legacy), Kyra Day (Cheyenne), Lindy Eskin (Green Valley), Madison Johonnot (Centennial), Sydney Land (Sierra Vista), Cortney Miller (Calvary Chapel), Iris Munguia (Basic), Amari Norris (Silverado) and Shaye'e Swaine (Coronado).

The Rebels will return to Northern Arizona on Friday and Saturday for the Mountain T's Invitational.

YANG STARTS WITH BANG — Rebels newcomer Carol Zi Yang from China was named the season's first Mountain West women's tennis player of the week after going 5-2 in her UNLV debut at the elite Freeman Memorial tournament at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

Yang upset two ranked players from the University of Florida in singles, defeating No. 25 Kourtney Keegan and No. 73 Spencer Liang. In doubles, Yang and partner Aiwen Zhu, also from China, won twice before losing in the semifinals to the nation's second-ranked duo from North Carolina.

The Rebels open dual-match play at 10 a.m. Friday, hosting New Mexico State. They'll host Weber State on Saturday and Pacific on Sunday. Admission is free.

REBEL GIRLS CLAIM CROWN — The UNLV Rebel Girls won their fourth college dance team national title in nine years at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla. The Rebel Girls won the Division IA Hip Hop Finals, which they also won in 2008, 2010 and 2013. They were runners-up in 2014 and 2015.

The Rebel Girls performed Friday on NBC's Today show in a segment that aired live from Caesars Palace.