First Lady travels to Queens, New York, for USTA kids' fitness event at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center...UPDATE: The post about the event is here.
Since moving into the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama has repeatedly said that tennis is her favorite sport. There's a court on the South Lawn, and Mrs. Obama has made good use of it. On Friday, the First Tennis Player will get to test her skills against some of the world's best players, when she travels to New York for a special Let's Move! tennis clinic with players participating in the US Open. The East Wing just announced the outing; Mrs. Obama and local kids will swing their rackets at a junior tennis clinic sponsored by the U.S. Tennis Association, which has made major commitments to help young people stay active in support of the Let’s Move! initiative. (Above: Mrs. Obama and a junior player in a promotional video for the Let's Move-USTA partnership)
The event will be at USTA's showcase venue, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, according to the First Lady's Press Secretary, Hannah August. King is herself a member of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, and joined the First Lady at the White House in May to launch a special Let's Move! initiative for military families. Mrs. Obama's visit to New York will be a day trip, August said.
According to August, the tennis superstars who will join Mrs. Obama for the clinic include Billie Jean King; Serena Williams; John McEnroe; James Blake; Katrina Adams and MaliVai Washington.
To support Let's Move, USTA has built or refurbished almost 2,000 kid-sized tennis courts throughout the country over the past year. They've also recruited over 223,000 kids to complete the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award challenge, and introduced “10 and Under” Tennis to 26 cities. In August of 2011, President Obama dropped in on a USTA-Let's Move! tennis clinic on the South Lawn, where he confabbed with excited junior tennis players, as well as Doubles superstars the Bryan Brothers, identical twins who have proved themselves unstoppable:
Mrs. Obama starred as a "ballgirl" in a video with husband and wife tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, promoting USTA's Let's Move! partnership in a video released in March of 2011.
"Now, it's easier to play an hour a day every day," Mrs. Obama says onscreen, before she's shushed by a junior tennis whiz:
*To find out more about getting a USTA tennis court in your community, click here. For more information on the PALA challenge, click here.