Page 36 - Sports Illustrated for Kids Magazine (December 2019)

here’s something about driving a
T go-kart 60 miles per hour down a road
course that just makes 12-year-old Olivia
happy. “It’s really fun because you get to be
free,” she says. At 10, while driving with the
Sports Car Club of America, she earned the
Hawaii SCCA Most Improved Driver award.
Her dad, Bill, is her mechanic, and since
moving to Florida, she has continued to get
better. In September, Olivia became the first
female driver to win a Formula Junior Kart
national championship at SCCA Solo
Autocross Nationals. She won the B division,
for eight- to 12-year-olds, one year after
coming in second. In solo autocross, drivers
maneuver around cones and race against
the clock. Olivia has also begun wheel-to-
wheel racing (against other drivers) and has
competed in BMX, rifle, karate, and archery.
“In solo, the best drivers are going through
the corners with the car sliding a little bit,” AUTO RACING
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA
says Terry Tabor, the SCCA solo chairman
for Central Florida. “Most of the other kids,
they get uncomfortable. . . . She is fearless.”

o wasn’t even one week old when he began sporting
B wrestling gear, a onesie emblazoned with the name of
his future club, Young Guns. He was a water boy for his dad,
the wrestling coach at a nearby high school, then took up the
sport at seven. He idolized older Young Guns athletes such as
Spencer Lee, currently a junior at Iowa and a two-time NCAA titlist.
Now 13-year-old Bo is a three-time champion at USA Wrestling
Nationals (2019 14-U 83-pound freestyle and Greco-Roman, and
’18 novice 74-pound freestyle). For the last four years, he’s swept
titles in his division in folkstyle, freestyle, and Greco-Roman in the
most competitive wrestling state in the country. He learned so much
from Lee and others and takes every opportunity to set a similar
example. “They’d always be really nice and positive,” says Bo, who’s
sometimes asked for autographs. “I want to have that same effect
on the kids who are little now.”
Jody Strittmatter, the co-owner of Young Guns, says Bo’s
consistency makes him stand out. “Wrestling is his passion,” says
Strittmatter. “He just completely committed at a young age.” BEN VAN HOOK (OLIVIA); FRED VUICH (BO)

WRESTLING
FOREST HILLS, PENNSYLVANIA