9-year-old girl fights bullying by completing a 24-hour, 36-mile race
Battling bullying is never easy, but one athlete makes it seem effortless.
After being teased by her peers, Milla Bizzotto decided to hit the gym and increase her confidence through fitness, ultimately completing a race designed by the Navy SEALs.
Oh, and she's only nine years old.
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“People would call me names and say I wasn’t a good player,” Bizzotto told the Miami Herald. “I didn’t want anyone else to go through what I did. I want to set an example and show other kids that they can do or be anything they want.”
Milla's father is co-founder of the Miami-based Focused Movement Academy, a gym that focuses on coaching and training. This is where Milla was inspired to start focusing on fitness to increase her strength and self-esteem.
With the help of the gym, she trained for and completed a Navy SEALs-designed obstacle course called the BattleFrog 24-hour race. The course includes a 36-mile run, an eight-kilometer (five-mile) swim and 25 different obstacles.
Bizzotto is the youngest athlete to ever complete the course. In fact, at age nine and just 53 pounds, she was the only competitor under the age of 18.
Prior to the 24-hour race, she had also completed a BattleFrog 15k and a Spartan Sprint.
"I do racing to inspire kids that they have a special side of them and to get them off the couch," she told ABC News.
“I want to inspire a generation,” Milla told the Miami Herald. “I don’t get bullied anymore. I know how to stand up for myself now. And I love what I do. I want to do it forever.”
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