Woodland Middle School rising seventh-grader Elizabeth Duke will be participating in the AAU Junior Olympic Games Sport Stacking Championships in Houston, Texas, beginning July 25.
SPECIAL
Duke said she learned the ins and outs of sport stacking during physical education at Euharlee Elementary and has been participating in the sport for nearly seven years.
According to www.speedstacks.com, "Sport stacking originated in the early 1980's in southern California and received national attention in 1990 on a segment of the 'Tonight Show' with Johnny Carson. That was where it first captured the imagination of Bob Fox, who was then an elementary classroom teacher in Colorado."
The sport involves a person removing cups from a stack, placing them on top of one of another similar to a house of playing cards, then moving them back into the stack. The sport encourages hand-eye coordination, quickness and ambidexterity.
"At first I was getting beat and I didn't like that, so I started practicing and now I'm No. 1 in front of everybody," Duke said.
Qualifying sport stackers from across the U.S. and around the world will converge for this summer's games.
"It's an exciting advancement for sport stacking to be included as part of the 2012 AAU Junior Olympic Games and a tremendous opportunity for top stackers to compete," World Sport Stacking Association Executive Director Bob Fox said in a press release. "We will be one of 18 sports in this summer's games that will draw more than 17,000 total athletes. It's the largest multi-sport youth event in the country."
Duke said she won a stacking competition earlier this year in Columbus and later received an invite to the Junior Olympics.
Although Duke originally had trouble with sport stacking and had to put in a lot of practice, she isn't nervous about competing.
"I really don't have to practice much anymore," Duke said.
A cotton candy fundraiser will be held all day Saturday at Antoninos Italian Grotto to help Duke and her family with travel expenses.