Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK have been taking part in sports events after clubs and sports centres opened their doors for free to celebrate Team GB’s Olympic success.
About 2,600 free sporting events were being held, involving up to 60 Olympians, while ITV switched off all seven of its channels for an hour at 9.30am to encourage people to get involved.
The national sports day, called I Am Team GB, aimed to rally the British public to get active, and follows a mixed legacy from London 2012, when sports participation slumped despite GB climbing the medal table.
The Olympian Greg Rutherford opened his back garden, complete with long jump, to young people in Woburn Sands, near Milton Keynes. “It’s an interesting concept, come to my back garden and jump into the pit that I train on for the world championships, Olympics and everything else,” he said.
The long jump has a 52 metre runway and a 9 metre pit for children from the local athletics club to try out.
“For me, it’s just very important for kids to be getting involved. We live in a day and age now where there’s so many different distractions; there’s so many different things youngsters can do. When I was growing up, we didn’t have a computer in the house until I was 13 or 14. Nowadays kids learn to walk and they can play on an iPad. When I was younger I was getting out climbing trees and being active.”
At London’s Copper Box arena, which was used to host the London 2012 Games, people were trying out activities, from handball to belly dancing, alongside the double gold medallist and gymnast Max Whitlock.
Nicole Sherapin, from Stratford, took her two children to the event. “I watched the Olympics every time it was on. It’s great that Team GB came second in the medal table, so when I saw this on the TV this morning I thought I’d bring the kids here because they’re really into sport and it’s something fun to do with it being the school holidays. They’ve tried the bikes, badminton, table tennis. I want my youngest to have a go at handball because it’s an alternative to football.”
In Reading, the Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover was offering advice to people who wanted to try out the sport. “There’ll be some challenges on the rowing machine. I think we’ll try to get some boats out if anyone wants to have a go at rowing. It’s really good that we’re challenging ideas and trying new things, it’s the first time ever a TV channel has been switched off to encourage people to leave the house and I think it’s amazing.”
She added that although she may give out some tips on the secrets of becoming an Olympic success, the event was about encouraging newcomers to have some fun. “I won’t be talking, unless people ask specifically, about how to be the next big thing, it will be about how to enjoy it and what sport to try.”
I Am Team GB is organised by the national lottery, ITV, UK Sport and the British Olympic Association.
Adam Chataway, the marketing manager at Camelot, said he expected hundreds of thousands of people to take part. “The Olympics has obviously caught the imagination of the nation and what we really wanted to do was bottle that and use the excitement of the Olympians returning to their communities to get out there, get active and give people the encouragement to get involved and give sport a go.”
