You could forgive the participants if they didn't know a triathlon from a pentathlon. The recent fifth annual Toddler Olympics at Metropolitan Tabernacle on Shepherd Road, after all, was competition and rivalry on a slightly smaller scale.
"We like to have our kids do stuff outdoors," said Cheryl Tavares, co-chairwoman of the event sponsored by the Moms Club of Chattanooga. "It's about everybody getting fit."
The event was not lacking in pomp, pageantry and Pampers.
As the traditional Olympic theme was played on a toy xylophone and adults intoned the familiar overture, its 33 preschool participants marched -- or were carried -- in to take their place behind a toy torch.
After each participant held the torch -- fair is fair -- organizers let the games begin.
While the youngest competitors did a 100-inch crawl indoors, older children raced among six events spread across the church parking lot.
If they didn't quite understand the aim of the particular activity, that was perfectly OK. The first four-legged race participant, for instance, took off alone, hopping to the finish line in one of the white plastic sacks decorated with red and blue stars and a United States flag. There, he promptly sat down and curled up as if his sack was a sleeping bag.
At the relay race, it took a while for the team concept to be grasped because most participants wanted to go from start to finish with the soft batons.
"No, not that way," parents said. "This way."
The top athletes in the shot put tossed their bean bags into colorful buckets three feet out, but buckets one and two feet out were also acceptable alternatives.
The tricycle race, meanwhile, variously pitted children on tiny bicycles in neon colors against others on classic red tricycles, plastic Fisher-Price three-wheelers and at least one leg-powered Radio Flyer rocket.
At the conclusion of the Games, all participants were given medals, albeit plastic.
Moms Club president and event co-chairwoman Jenna Hill said the 36-member group on its online calendar tries to offer some opportunity in some part of the city every weekday. Most days, she said, it is an event like a playground gathering, but other events such as the Toddler Olympics, Moms Night Out and March of Dimes walks offer opportunities for bigger get-togethers.
"It's getting (the children) out of the house, away from the TV," she said.
Mrs. Tavares, whose son, Boone, 4, participated in the games, said monthly Moms Club meetings offer speakers on topics such as teaching children how to eat healthy food and instructing moms how to do exercises such as yoga and Pilates.
"Children's health is very important," she said. An event like the Toddler Olympics "helps kids with sleeping, with getting them down for a nap. Every day they're out doing physical activity, their brain functions better."
Former Moms Club president Danielle Hooper said the event was begun five years ago because members felt there weren't enough activities that brought children together.
While the Olympics theme is only symbolic, she said, "They have a feel for it."
Ms. Hill said her son, Gavin, 4, could relate after watching the Winter Olympics earlier this year.
"He was all about the Games," she said.
Kristen Christopher, a stay-at-home mom, said she brought her two children, Jenny, 3, and Tray, 10 months, to the event and often takes them to the Riverwalk because they need activity. Otherwise, she said, "They'd go stir-crazy."
Part of the proceeds from the small entry fee went to the Chattanooga Autism Center.