Team GB celebrates Olympic Day

This year Team GB will be celebrating Olympic Day on 23 June over five days by encouraging the nation to get active and by promoting the Olympic Values of friendship, excellence and respect.

As the United Kingdom continues to operate under the Government’s lockdown guidelines, Team GB will be providing families and schoolteachers with a range of Get Set and Travel to Tokyo resources to inspire young people to maintain healthy, active lifestyles. The activity will kick off on Monday 22 June and will be available via Team GB’s social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Get Set is the British Olympic Association (BOA) and British Paralympic Association’s youth engagement programme. It was initially created as the official London 2012 education programme to deliver against Lord Coe’s vision to use the Games to inspire a generation of young people. Travel to Tokyo, part of the Get Set initiative, aims to encourage children and their families to try new activities in the run up to the Tokyo 2020 and Paralympic Games, which have been delayed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A host of Team GB Olympians and Tokyo 2020 hopefuls, including Travel to Tokyo ambassadors Laviai Nielson (athletics) and Anthony Ogogo (former boxer), have devised bespoke workouts for parents and schoolteachers to try at home or in the classroom, as well as a series of fun fitness challenges.

Team GB’s Olympic Day celebrations also coincide with National Schools Sports Week, which takes place each year to celebrate the role of physical education and school sport in enhancing young peoples’ wellbeing. Get Set will be supporting this with its ‘Have a Sports Day at Home’ initiative, acknowledging that many children will miss out on their annual school sports day as a result of lockdown.

After building an at-home obstacle course for her toddler near the start of lockdown, former alpine ski racer Chemmy Alcott will be creating a brand new obstacle course for people to try at home as part of their own sports days.

Elsewhere, Team GB will join the wider Olympic Movement in their Olympic Day celebrations by supporting the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) #StayActive campaign. Inspired by the energy and positivity of Olympians around the globe during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the IOC will create the world’s largest 24 hour digital-first Olympic workout. Taekwondo’s Lutalo Muhammad, who won silver at Rio 2016, joins Olympians from all four corners of the globe in a home video workout which can be viewed here.

In amongst the workouts, fitness challenges and at-home sports days, Team GB will share a selection of learning resources on the Olympic Values which can be used in the classroom, on the playground or at home.

Olympic bronze medallist and Travel to Tokyo ambassador, Anthony Ogogo commented: “While the nation continues to operate under these unique circumstances it is so important that we find ways to remain fit, healthy and motivated. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games may have been postponed by a year, but we can still take inspiration from everything that the Olympics stands for by promoting healthy wellbeing and the Olympic Values to young people and demonstrate how these can be weaved into everyday life.”

For more information on Get Set and Travel to Tokyo visit https://www.getset.co.uk/

For the IOC’s #StayActive campaign and details of their plans for Olympic Day on 23 June visit https://www.olympic.org/olympic-day