When international tennis legend Gigi Fernandez was contemplating ways to introduce her twin babies to sports, she stumbled across an idea: Why not substitute her children’s passive TV time with a DVD that would encourage them to be active over a lifetime? The result of her brainstorm is Baby Goes Pro, an animated series she co-founded and unveiled at Toy Fair 2010 (available at www.BabyGoesPro.com for $14.95). I dropped by booth 3234 for a quick chat with Gigi, who is the only Puerto Rican to ever win a gold medal and claimed 17 Grand Slam titles (she was first introduced to tennis when her parents gave her tennis lessons as a gift for her seventh birthday). Gigi told me all about her new product, her experience as an Olympian and a mom, and why she decided to do her part to fight our nation’s childhood obesity crisis. In fact, Baby Goes Pro is battling the bulge on two fronts: Ten percent of Baby Goes Pro profits have already been earmarked for donation to charitable organizations that promote active lifestyles for youth.
Michelle Burford: What exactly is Baby Goes Pro and how did you become involved?
Gigi Fernandez: I’m the co-founder of Baby Goes Pro, which introduces young children to sports. I’m a two-Olympic gold medalist in tennis—1992 in Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta. I now have 10-month old twins (a girl and a boy, Madison and Karson), and when they started watching videos, I thought it was good because it gave me 25 minutes of peace and quiet! But I wanted them to watch something that would help them somehow—a product that would introduce them to sports—and there was nothing in the market, so we produced it. In our DVD series, we have an animated character, a coach named EMKEI—which stands for equipment, movement, know-how, externals, and instruction. Those are the building blocks of sports. The DVD introduces children to five sports: baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, and soccer.
MB: Are you hoping to steer your children toward a professional career in tennis?
GF: If they wanted to play tennis, I would encourage them—but I don’t necessarily want my kids to be tennis stars or pros. I just want them to follow whatever their calling is. And I want them to be active. The slogan of our company is “Inspiring a generation to move.” In this country, we have a childhood obesity problem, which First Lady Michelle Obama has been talking about. There’s too much inactivity in this country. We’re trying to do our part to change that by introducing young kids to sports, so that when they grow up, they’ll want to continue in sports. In our DVD, the monkey’s cool, it’s very colorful, and there are sing-a-along songs.
MB: How have your twins responded to the DVD?
GF: My kids love it! The boy is fixated on it—he will watch for 25 minutes without moving his eyes. The girl watches it, but she comes back to it when the monkey, EMKEI, comes back every 20 seconds to do a high-five or spin around! She loves the animated parts. My neighbor, who is 2, watched it for a couple days, and when she played soccer, she received the boll and stopped it just like the girl in the DVD! And she’s just 2! In making the DVD. We consulted a sports psychologist and a developmental psychologist, and they both said that when kids are little, they have an accelerated rate of learning. Kids are sponges! Philosophically, as a parent, you have to decide whether you’re going to let your kids watch TV. But it’s 2010, and my 10-month-old kids already like my iPhone! It’s a different world, so I figure that if I’m going to show them something on TV, I might as well let them watch something that’s instructional and educational.
MB: Let’s talk about your tennis career for a sec. When you were an up-and-coming tennis player, which tennis greats did you admire?
GF: Martina Navratilova was the number one in the world when I was a girl! I wanted to be like Martina back then.
MB: You officially retired from tennis in 1997. Looking back over a career marked by so many highlights, what was your greatest moment?
GF: Winning the two Olympic gold medals. When I won the first one, it was an unbelievable feeling! You’ve probably heard people say that it’s not about winning the gold medals, but it’s about participating in the Olympics. That’s actually true. Even though winning the gold medal was amazing, just walking into the Olympic stadium was the thrill of a lifetime. With the Olympics going on this week, it brings back so memories for me.
It was particularly thrilling to be in Atlanta in 1996, because we were playing at home here in the U.S. While we were in the tunnel waiting to go into the arena, the whole U.S.A delegation started chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A! U.S.A.!” The tunnel was reverberating! I still get goose bumps when I think about it. I’ll never forget that feeling.
No comments:
Post a Comment