Kids All Winners in Very Junior Olympics

The Olympic flame may have been extinguished in Atlanta, but for a group of Northridge preschoolers it still burns brightly--at least in spirit.

Heading into the final week of a seven-week summer program saluting the Olympic Games and the cultures of the world, Temple Ramat Zion’s nursery school spent Monday morning staging Olympic-like games for its eager students.

Although the events bore little resemblance to the traditional contests--this competition had only four events, after all--similarities remained, such as the Atlanta-like heat and chaos. But the more than three dozen children didn’t seem to mind.

“Are you strong?” nursery school Director Judy Glick asked the amateur Olympians before the games began. “Do you have courage? Are you brave?” Each query was met with a hearty “Yeah!”

“Then you’re ready,” Glick said.

Staged in a quick 20 minutes, the competitions included basketball shooting, a tricycle race, a footrace weaving through orange cones and a mostly make-believe breaststroke across a grass lawn.

“This is a pretend swim,” parent volunteer Shari Sherman explained. “There’s no real water today.”

Out at the makeshift racetrack, 5-year-old Nicole Benzimra surveyed the other tricyclists and predicted an easy victory.

“I’m gonna win,” she said. “I know I am. I’ve been practicing.”

Alas, she would have to settle for second place, but in these Very Junior Olympics every competitor walked away with a gold medal, a plastic one, anyway. The last bit of business? The athlete’s oath.

“I promise we will try very hard to be good friends,” Glick read aloud for the children to repeat, “good sports and good teammates.”