NOTE: Our own Scott Plakon's daughter Jeanne is the soloist!

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The United States Olympic Committee (USOC), in conjunction with the United States Sport Academy, announced that Legacy 12, a music group composed of 8- to 12-year-old students at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, Fla., has won the inaugural USOC Sport and Singing Contest.

The dozen young singers in Legacy 12 performed “I Stand Amazed,” a song reflecting the spirit of Olympism. Their performance can be viewed at http://67.207.133.181/video_1. The song was written by Gerry Williams(Arranger), Cheryl Sims (Producer) and Pamela Reynolds (Choreographer), who teach at Lake Highland Preparatory School.

The singing contest was the national phase of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sport and Singing Contest, a cultural component of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad being held in Beijing in August. U.S. artists of all ages were invited to submit original songs with a theme related to the Olympic Games.

Legacy 12 advances to the international competition, conducted by the IOC. Winners of that phase will be invited to perform their winning songs at the Beijing Olympics.

No strangers to the stage, Legacy 12 has performed three times at the White House along with performances at Walter Reed Medical Center. The group also traveled to Hawaii to sing in the Pearl Harbor Naval Winterfest and performed at the National VFW Convention in Reno, Nev.

The Legacy 12 singers are John Dwyer, Erica Forbes, Julian James, Michaela Kayaleh, Jameson Malugen, Alejandro Nodarse, James Overmeyer, Jeanne Plakon, Mercedes Sapp, Christina Schreiber, Parker White and Martha Yergey.

As a part of the celebrations planned for the 2008 Olympic Games, the IOC and its Commission for Culture and Olympic Education encourage all National Olympic Committees to heighten awareness of the link between sport and art through participation in contests such as IOC’s Sport and Singing Contest and Sport and Art Contest.

In 2008, the Academy and the United States Olympic Committee conducted the national qualifying round of the IOC Sport and Art Contest along with the IOC Sport and Singing Contest. Both contests are administered by the IOC Commission for Culture and Olympic Education, a commission to which Academy President and CEO Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich belongs.

San Diego artist Kadir Nelson won in the graphics category of the national competition, while Pacific Grove, Calif., native Edward Eyth won in the sculpture category. Both artists, like Legacy 12, will be judged against international competition. The winning works will be displayed at the Beijing Olympic Games.

For more information, please contact the USOC Media and Public Relations Division (719-866-4529). This release is also available on the USOC media-specific web site, http://usocpressbox.org