May 16, 2008

Students vie for Schoolympics glory

By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

Children waving the flags of England, Iceland, Japan, the United States and other countries from across the globe got the eighth Burlingame Intermediate School Schoolympics off to a grand start Thursday with a parade of nations and the lighting of the Schoolympic flame.

Students who represented Iceland wore Viking helmets.

Schoolympians representing Egypt carried a mock mummy sarcophagus, and the Mexico flag bearer sported a sombrero. Burlingame Intermediate School 2007 graduate Ben Zipkin, 15, lit the Schoolympic flame after the torch arrived at the campus with a police escort.

The Schoolympics at Burlingame Intermediate, like the Olympic summer games, is held every four years. And everyone at the campus gets a chance to vie for gold, silver and bronze medals in at least four of the athletic and academic events.

Each homeroom learns about the country it represents in the Schoolympics, and students compete against other students in the same grade.

The games end next Friday with a closing ceremony.

"The Schoolympics has become a tradition," Principal Pam Scott told the students.

Former modern pentathlon athlete and Olympic hopeful Richard Fernandez gave the children a pre-Schoolympic pep talk.

He told them how his 1968 Olympic dreams were derailed by a broken leg and urged them never to give up.

Despite another injury later, he finished fifth in a race while in high school and carried the Olympic flag during the ceremony.

"Right now, my heart is beating so hard and so fast," Fernandez, 65, of Grass Valley, told the students.

Burlingame Mayor Rosalie O'Mahony called Osberg Field, where the ceremony was held behind the school, the students' "field of dreams."

"This year you will make history in your own way," O'Mahony said.

Brooke Shaughnessy and her sixth-grade classmates wore green shirts adorned with an Italian flag patch on their sleeves.

The 12-year-old and her Italian tug-of-war teammates breezed to victories over Switzerland, England and Ireland.

"We got the gold," the jubilant student proclaimed.

"I think it's very exciting."

Next up for Brooke are Scrabble and an event in which she and her teammates create their own dance.

Students in the stands cheered their teammates on with chants of Fiji, Fiji and other countries.

Eighth-grader Corinne O'Brien's class represented Greece.

Her Schoolympic teammates won gold in the tug-of-war eighth-grade competition.

"I think it really brings us together," Corinne said about the Schoolympics.
Corinne, 14, said she and her teammates learned about Greek culture, mythology, democracy and other aspects of the country.

Schoolympic organizer and eighth-grade algebra teacher Denise Fabris played a pivotal role in organizing this year's and three previous Schoolympics.

"It's a great activity, something that a kid will remember," Fabris said. "It's gotten bigger. There are more kids. We've added events."

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.