LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games today announced Samsungs support of the Ready, Set, Gold! (RSG!) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

RSG! is a legacy program of the Los Angeles bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is designed to motivate children to set and reach their goals, primarily in the areas of health and fitness in order to combat childhood obesity and diabetes. The program combines the excitement of the Olympics, the importance of goal setting and true American heroes Olympians and Paralympians.

By teaching our children goal-setting skills, RSG! not only advances their health and fitness scores but their academic skills as well, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. It is an example of how interactive education with a focus on the future can help Los Angeles youth become gold-medal students.

RSG! places Southern Californian Olympians and Paralympians in LAUSD schools to encourage young people to adopt healthy lifestyle and fitness habits. The programs previous three years of activity from 2006-2009 saw RSG! schools produce a 41% increase in students scoring in the healthy fitness zone on the State of Californias annual Fitnessgram test, compared to the year before RSG! was implemented.

With local physical education programs withering and statewide Fitnessgram scores on the decline, now more than ever, it is important to encourage healthy lifestyles and keep kids motivated to achieve their fitness goals, said Peter Vidmar, Olympian and RSG! Chairman. We are enthusiastic to reactivate this important program in LAUSD schools, all made possible by the generous support of Samsung.

In recent years, physical education programs in school have been on the decline. As such, many elementary schools have limited supervised exercise and sports activities and classes can have 50 or more students in each class. According to annual data published in the spring of 2011, currently only one in three students has earned a "healthy" score on Fitnessgram, California's physical fitness test.

To help strengthen the current physical education programs, RSG! in partnership with LAUSD, matches Olympians and Paralympians with 50 elementary, middle, and high schools. During the course of the school year, each Olympian or Paralympian makes five visits to their designated school and provides students with real life examples of how setting goals helped them be successful in sport and in life.

As an Angeleno and lifelong advocate of the Olympic ideals and the power of sport, Im delighted that Ready, Set, Gold! is making a comeback, said Anita DeFrantz, Olympic medalist and member of the International Olympic Committee. Our communitys many Olympic and Paralympic heroes will inspire our local youth to get active and make healthy choices, and Im grateful that Samsung has decided to help us with this important cause.

We are pleased to support the children of Los Angeles and encourage them to lead active, healthy lives, said David Steel, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics North America. We have seen firsthand how the RSG! program affects students through the positive influence of participating Olympians and Paralympians.

More:
Samsung Champions Health & Fitness for L.A. Public School Children Through the Ready, Set, Gold! Program