If you aren’t familiar with Lionhearts OCR, you need to get tied in. While there are plenty of teams of adults racing there are few organizations focused on growing the sport’s future. Lionhearts, a group started by “Shell” Lucketta, has been a driving force on this front for the last half-decade.
1. Race Sponsors: Several big brands have jumped on board with Lionhearts. The first was Savage Race and then Spartan Race. Since then, several local brands have jumped on board as well. The result is brands from across the OCR world coming together to help kids get involved in the sport. This is a win on all fronts: for the brands, for the athletes, for the kids, and for the future.
2. Mentors Matter: Several OCR Pros have also gotten involved in Lionhearts OCR. Pros have sacrificed their time, energy and efforts to inspire our youth. This includes athletes doing in-person training sessions like Rachel Watters, Brian Beale, and Noel Medina. Several of the athletes have shown up in person to run with the youth on the course including Heather Gollnick, Rachel Watters and Brian Beale. Some athletes have done inspirational Zoom meetings like Evan “Ultra-OCR Man” Perperis and Rachel Watters. Heather Gollnick has also shared training programs with the youth providing expert advice to the kids out of the kindness of her heart.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as many pros show up at the Lionhearts tents at OCRs without any formal invite or coordination prior. What’s amazing is the fact that many of the mentors are not only helping but are also the same people on the podiums. This shows what makes these athletes great isn’t their racing ability, it is their willingness to give back and spend a little bit of their personal time to inspire the kids.
3. Product Relationships: Brands like Race Ready Obstacles and FitBar have been huge supporters of the program helping to create an amazing training facility for the youth. Without the support of brands like them, many of the great opportunities for the youth wouldn’t be possible.
The program is based on the border between Georgia and Tennessee in Ringgold, Georgia, but you can find their tent at races throughout the US. Their programs are free for children and include free training camps, free races, free training, and free access to training.
The training has a non-competitive focus, to encourage kids to get moving, but the fun aspect has resulted in something amazing. Kids continue to show up, stay active, train, and improve. This has led to many of the kids placing well in competitive results and qualifying for world championships across all brands. They’ve unlocked something that will take them a lot further in life: The fact that persistence and consistency often bring success.
For more information on how you or your kids can get involved, check out their website at lionheartsfitness.com and head over to their Facebook page to give it a like.
