Deanna Grantham was at SUNY-Cortland on Wednesday, officially as a member of the Cortlandville Fire Department during the second annual Olympiad for Cortland County students. But she was quick to measure kids’ reactions to activities – including who displayed the best footwear.
“That guy has the coolest shoes,” Grantham said, pointing out a youngster rocking shiny gold high-tops.
“He looks like Usain Bolt,” Grantham added, referencing the retired Jamaican sprinter who holds records for the world’s fastest times in the 100- and 200-meter sprints, and often competed in shiny gold Adidas. Still, at least to Grantham, Bolt didn’t have fancier shoes than the gold ones a youngster wore inside Cortland’s stadium complex.
Grantham noticed the shoes, but said quickly that they didn’t impress her as much as the giant smiles the child competitors exhibited, as they strolled past the fences inside the stadium to enthusiastic rounds of applause from teen-age and young-adult volunteers at the Olympiad. Groups in yellow “volunteer” T-shirts cheered and waived pom-poms as lines of schoolchildren entered the stadium, which during the fall serves as Cortland’s football field.
The Olympiad attracted more than 100 competitors from schools across the county from the largest – Cortland and Homer – to the smaller group representing Cincinnatus. No official scores were kept.
Students competed in a range of events that began with 100-meter sprints in front of the stadium’s main grandstand shortly after 9 a.m.
Many of the competitors continued in informal sprinting competitions for about the next hour. One girl who’d been leading a race stopped and went back to help a competitor who had lost focus and had temporarily stopped racing.
Her fellow competitor reassured, the two resumed the race.
