Michelle Obama to appear at Team USA Media Summit in Dallas

By Tom Degun

May 8 - Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, will appear at the 2012 Team USA Media Summit in Dallas later this month alongside the top US Olympic and Paralympic prospects for London 2012 to announce her Let's Move! initiative which aims to solve the problem of childhood obesity by getting more American children involved in sport.

The summit, which is organised by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), is the biggest gathering of America's leading Olympic and Paralympic athletes for journalists ahead of London 2012 and the attendance of Obama (pictured above) on May 14 is a major boost for the event.

The move increases the growing collaboration between the USOC and the First Lady after she last week helped open the organisation's 2012 Warrior Games, a Paralympic-style competition for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans, at the Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs.

Obama will also be leading the United States delegation at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics on July 27.

The First Lady also she gave a speech to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its Session in Copenhagen in October 2009, alongside her husband, President Barack Obama (pictured below, right), when Chicago were bidding for the 2016 Games, although the American city lost out to Rio de Janeiro.


"We're incredibly honoured to have Mrs Obama join us in Dallas to celebrate the accomplishments of America's finest athletes and announce new ways we can all work together to increase access to sport for young children," said USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun, who welcomed the First Lady to the 2012 Warrior Games Opening ceremony last week.

"The Let's Move! initiative is an important one and something the entire Olympic family in the United States is eager to support."

The Team USA Media Summit itself will run between May 13 and 15 and gives print, broadcast, internet and photo journalists the chance to conduct interviews and photo sessions with Team USA's top Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls ahead of the 2012 Games.

The USOC has hosted a media summit each Olympic and Paralympic year since 1988, with previous host cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Houston, New York City and Salt Lake City.

Alongside the First Lady, the star attraction at the event will be swimming star Michael Phelps, the most successful Olympian of all-time with 14 gold medals, who will be aiming to add to the tally at London 2012.

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