She’s probably not done shedding her baby teeth, but 9-year-old Milla Bizzotto is tougher than most adults. The four-foot-tall, 53-pound third grader from South Florida recently shocked the world with her incredible physical fitness, becoming the youngest person in the world to complete the 24-hour Battlefrog Xtreme race, an outdoor fitness event designed by Navy SEALs.  

“I don’t want to play video games,” she explained in an interview with The Miami Herald. “I don’t want to hoverboard. I don’t want to do things to make life easier. I want to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I have one body and it’s all I want and all I love.”

“I’m fearless,” she added. “And knowing I’m inspiring people makes me more fearless. It is hard, but that doesn’t stop me.”

Milla revealed that she started training at the age of seven, with her father and CrossFit coach Christian Bizzotto, in a bid to overcome her experience of being bullied in the second and third grade. “People would call me names and say I wasn’t a good player,” she said, speaking to CBS Miami Local. So she wanted to learn to defend herself, and also become a role model for other kids like her.

“I don’t want people to quit because they don’t believe in themselves, because someone else says that they can’t believe in themselves,” she explained. “I didn’t want anyone else to go through what I did. I want to set an example and show other kids that they can do or be anything they want. I want to inspire kids to eat healthy and get outside and play. I want kids to stand up to bullies.”

Christian, it turns out, used to be a ‘super heavy set’ man who took up fitness training just to be able to set a positive example for his daughter. And now that he’s inspired her to become a role model for other kids, he’s pretty happy. “I think the bullying thing has died down without her having to take physical action just because her outlook is so much different now that she knows how to defend herself,” he said.

Having completed the Spartan race with her grandmother and father last year, Milla began training for the Battlefrog race in June. She worked on her physical strength and stamina three hours a day, five days a week, until she was eventually ready to take on the challenge. She did sustain a few injuries during practice, like this one time, when she jumped off an eight-foot wall and twisted her ankle. But she was back to business only a few days later.

Milla raised $1,645 through a GoFundMe page to cover the costs of the athletic gear she needed for the event – including compression socks, waterproof lights, hydration packs, and gloves.During the actual race, she managed to run, jump, swim, climb, and crawl her way through the five-mile course with 25 obstacles, getting very little sleep between 2am and 6am.

“I’m so proud of her,” Christian said. “She was so amazing the entire race. She is really so relentless and refuses to quit.”

“This will be an once-in-a-lifetime memory that she and her father will share together,” added Battlefrog CEO Ramiro Ortiz. The company apparently had to bend its rules to allow the little girl to participate in the race. “No physical activity is without risk, which is something all our participants understand. In this case, both Milla and her father have trained for the race.”

According to Christian, Milla is naturally motivated and he doesn’t really force her into anything. “People that know me and know her don’t think I’m nuts,” he said. “But people who don’t probably think I am. The thing is, I don’t push her to do anything. If she wanted to play with Barbies, it would be totally cool. All I tell her is that she can do anything she wants.”

“This isn’t where the parent is trying to live vicariously through a child,” agreed Dr. Todd Narson, the owner of Miami Beach Family and Sports Chiropractic Center, who has personally treated Milla. “This is all self-motivated. She’s a natural athlete, and she’s doing things that are reasonable for her. If she was in constant pain or shown developmental issues, it would be different. But that’s not the case at all.”

Milla says that while she’d like to inspire other kids, not everyone has to be like her. “We are all made in different shapes and sizes, we need to love our bodies!” she said. “I love what I do. I want to do it forever.”

Photos: Christian Bizzotto/Facebook

Sources: Miami Herald, CBS Miami