Elementary School Fitness Assessments: Who Else got a "Participant" Medal?

Dave Tallo

I was recounting this with my brother a few days before IM Canada a few weeks ago: is there anyone else out there who was abysmally nonathletic as a child?   Like, the system had to intervene, nonathletic? 

I remember the standardized assessment in school in something like grade 4 or 5.  Pull ups, running, rope climb, pushups, and a bunch of other skills.   Province-wide, we all had to do it.  I was probably dead last, or near last, in every skill.   I got the "Participant" ranking.   The rank was Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Participant.  
 
And I kid you not: I brought such a full package of weakness, uncoordination, inflexibility, and readiness to tire/quit, that after the tests, they took me out of regular classes two or three afternoons a week for special activity attention for the rest of the year.   Me, (and this isn't meant to be insensitive - just factual) and another kid whose dad owned a Candy Factory.  I swear I'm not confusing this with Agustus Gloop; his dad actually owned a Candy Factory.   

Was there anyone else in this rarefied "Participant" rank?  Or were you all just a bunch of Golds?   

Paul Hough

I recall the Presidential physical fitness test when I was a kid.  It had a variety of tests and although I sucked at the 40 yard shuttle run, I was the  class champ in 5th and 6th grade for the 600 yard run .... what seemed very long to most kids then.  That 600 yard score was enough to pull me up to the Bronze level for which I got a patch.  But I was not the kid you wanted on your baseball team, or pretty much any sport that required eye/hand coordination.

Scott Alexander

@Paul Hough, that test was the bane of my existence! 

I was the short, fat, "husky" kid that was chosen last for EVERYthing, including the square dancing! However, when it came to academic teams, always top 10%! So there's that...

Satish Punna

me- i was terribly unathletic and always the last one picked for the softball game.  Thanks for bringing back the memories.

Al Truscott

I had a bipolar athletic experience in grade school. Due to an Unfortunate Series of Events, I first encountered the 4th grade mid-year as a transfer, one year younger than my classmates. In gym class, I was short and slow compared to my peers, and started developing an inferiority complex. Everyone was already talking about the spring Track Meet, which included representatives from all the elementary schools in the city. 50 yard dash, triple jump, strength events, etc. You were picked based on performance in gym. I got depressed when my 50 yd time was 7.2, and all the cool guys were 6.8 or something, and the coolest kid was a zippy 6.4.

As the excitement built week-by-week to the big event, I felt more and more shunted to the side, unable to babble with the others about going. Then, the week before, the gym teacher, Mr Walling (its funny how how this comes rushing back - I haven't thought about it for decades) pulls me aside, smiles, and tells me I'm going! Apparently, the qualifying times and distances are age-rated, not grade-rated, and I make the dash and the triple jump. I didn't win any medals, but I was proud to even Participate. Still, back at my home school, I was scorned because of my size, yet tolerated because I was one of the Chosen Few.

Then, in the sixth grade, my father promised to buy me a transistor radio (the iPhone of its time) if I joined the swim team at our local pool. I did that mainly because I wanted to listen to rock 'n roll, and the Cincinnati Reds baseball games. But I was the WORST swimmer on the team, it seemed. Nonetheless, I persisted, finding a niche in breast-stroking, where I went on the get a bunch of red or white second or third place ribbons, because there was always someone on my team or the other team who would beat me at the dual meets. Same thing in high school and college. Masochistically, I kept joining swim teams, and being the worst on them, all because of that transistor radio.

One thing led to another, and here I am @ 68, still slogging away in the pool and on the track. A dilettante at individual sports, but dogged enough to put them all together. (Maybe someday I'll get to tell my biking origin story, also from grade school)

Paul Hough

@Al Truscott - I started Kindergarten in Germany at age 4 and so was always a year younger and much shorter than my older classmates back in the states.  I think that 'inferiority' complex is part of why I ran so hard when I found I could do distance well.

Gordon Cherwoniak

I remember the Canada Fitness Awards program.  Excellence, Gold, Silver and Bronze.  I never got above a silver and remember striving for my older brothers excellence award.  I just could not do the sprinting or shuttle run adn not that good at the standing long jump. 

In high school we had a series of tests running 1600M maybe, I came close to perfect 8:30 was the mark and got 8:36.  Bench press was two plates over my weight so 120lbs I did 80 and 90lbs.  Sit-up were great 64-68 in a minute, almost got in a fight over this one as someone called me out for cheating.  We had a few words and then I said lets go again I'll do 60 more right now in a minute, unfortunately the teacher stepped in and mentioned he was watching me difusing the situation
. 
I always wanted a leg press, being a figure skater I had chicken arms and big legs for my age.  I could push the universal stack of 500lbs in grade 9. 

I was very uncoordinated as a kid and I spent 18 years figure skating much of that at the bottom of the pack, less than participant and just showing up just trying to do what I could do on any given day.  Mostly getting beat severely for the first 12 or so years of my career.  Honestly coaches did not want to take me on but they wanted my brother so we came as a package deal.  Lucky for me as I got better coaching through out the years

In the end I was skating around 18-24 hours a weeks with about 3 weeks off a year.  This got me a huge engine that I wasted in university and in to my mid 30's.  I also did not own a car until I was 30 and biked and ran pretty much everywhere.  If I really needed a car I borrowed mom's. 

At 25 I quit staking and started grad studies and partying like I was a 1st year.  Got my first real job at 30 spent the next few years doing little and picked up triathlon.  Broke my leg 10 year ago, gain 30lbs and been stuck in the repeating IM/lose weight/time off/gain weigh rut for the last 15 years.  I've now worked my way to participant again but I did start with some physical skill.

Tom Glynn

I did those Canadian Fitness Tests too.  Always struggled to get the bronze! Shortest kid in the class, truly uncoordinated - and still am to this day!  I discovered, almost by accident that I had some endurance in 11th grade. I ran a mile in around 7:00 minutes at that time.  Not very impressive, but in a year I had figured out how to string 26 of them together which made for a pretty impressive marathon time for a high school kid.  School always promoted team sports and very little emphasis on endurance, unless you ran cross country.  I'm pretty sure many runners and triathletes discovered their passion well past high school or college.

Alicia Chase

Like @Paul Hough I remember the Presidential Fitness Awards. I never earned a patch. As skinny as I am now, a strong gust of wind would've blown me away when I was a kid. I was pretty good with core and lower body, though I'm a faster runner now, but upper body, forget it. I was so weak. Still am. I remember dreading the rope climb. We had kids in my class that could climb all the way to the gym ceiling. When I think of it now, it was probably pretty dangerous, no wonder they stopped doing that. I couldn't get more than 5 or 6 feet off the floor, so I was pretty safe  but I hated trying to climb with the whole class watching me. Humiliating.