OT Fitness – a fantastic way to engage all kids no matter what their fitness level.
Over The Top. It's the catch phrase of Milt Ottey's OT Fitness. The "OT" directly refers to the motivating motto. Indeed, Milt Ottey, founder and CEO of Milt Ottey's OT Fitness, a former world-class Canadian track and field athlete and #1-ranked high jumper in the world (1982), motivational speaker, entrepreneur, fitness expert and coach - was destined to carry forward his passion and vision for exceptional achievement in the realm of athletics and share his inspiring gifts with Canadian youth across the country.
Born in Jamaica, Milt and his family immigrated to Canada when he was ten years old. Adopting to a new country was a challenge for Milt as for many new Canadians - but it was in school where Milt faced an even more daunting obstacle in his life's journey; it was discovered that he had difficulty learning. Milt was bright but needed an outlet to focus his attributes. To help channel his untapped abilities - Milt found it is easy to express his natural discipline and athletic prowess in track and field. The high jump event would be Milt's domain. Milt's combination of sublime focus, training, talent and supportive coaching would yield stellar results throughout his formative scholastic career. In 1978, Milt brought home a silver medal in the first ever World Junior Championships and ranked as the best high jumper in Canada. By 1980, an Olympic year, Milt would make the Canadian Olympic team and be a contender to medal in his chosen event. Years of hard work, honing his skills with a conscientiousness and dedication unmatched - only a political boycott of the games by western nations in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan - would prevent a trip to Moscow that summer. Undeterred, the next 3 years on the world stage would see Milt's star rise to the top winning 28 of 29 events in 1982 making him the world's best. Only subsequent severe leg injuries between 1983 and 1989 would force him to retire prematurely from international competition. Personally devastating to have to give up athletic competition - the fire was still burning from within. Now Milt would face the challenge of how to focus his energies from the field into a worthwhile career enterprise.
Over the top. Onward and upward in the face of life's pitfalls and triumphs - this theme would become the trademark of Milt's journey to the highest levels of athletic competition the world over, and years later - set the tone for OT Fitness, his creation. It's an organization designed to positively motivate, encourage, coach, and support Canadian youth with respect to physical literacy, wellness, and healthy living. Since 2010, after years coaching at the university and college levels in the USA and in Canada, Milt started "Milt Ottey's OT Fitness" bearing in mind the notions of giving back to the community, citizens, and the country he loves and to leave a legacy of striving to achieve, invigorating passion in the pursuit of happiness and fulfillment and overcoming all odds. Over the top - as in over the high jump bar, becoming the world's best, overcoming personal challenges, physical injury, finding one's way, one's calling - is the perfect motto and mantra for OT Fitness. Milt Ottey is the transcendent, living proof.
