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Pupils celebrate 6-month countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Team GB and Paralympics GB athletes mark six months to go until Paris 2024 in Manchester Families and pupils get active together to celebrate the countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
Salford, Manchester - The countdown is on until the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with just six months to go until the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Team GB and Paralympics GB athletes celebrated this milestone with a Countdown to the Games event in Manchester.
Get Set, the official youth engagement programme from Team GB and Paralympics GB, aims to inspire children aged 5-11 and their families to get more active together and has recently launched a new virtual challenge – Path to Paris funded by Sport England and Spirit of 2012.
Path to Paris invites young people across the nation to log their physical activity online and power their team around the world to reach Paris in time for the Games. So far, over 13.5 million minutes have been logged which equals a staggering 8.1 million km travelled!
The countdown event kick-offed with a special demo from British Champion and Paris hopeful skateboarder Joe Hinson. Pupils then got stuck in and tried out different Path to Paris activities alongside Team GB and Paralympics GB athletes Javier Bello, Ashley Facey and Beth Munro. Andy Anson, CEO of Team GB and David Clarke, CEO of Paralympics GB also attended the celebration.
After the activities, pupils learnt more about the Olympic and Paralympic Games and watched athletes in action. Pupils came together at the end of the event to discover and celebrate how far they’ve travelled on their virtual journey to Paris by taking part in the day.
Outside this event, all young people aged 5-11 can sign up to Path to Paris to embark on an exciting virtual journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, find new ways to become active, develop healthier lifestyles and enjoy spending time with their families or local community groups. There are also amazing prizes up for grabs!
As well as the programme being open to all schools, youth and community groups and individual families across the UK, there are opportunities to engage through Path to Paris partner projects with national and local partners including: Active Partnerships, the Youth Sport Trust, Our Parks and the Department for Education's HAF programme.
Andy Anson OBE, Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association said: “We’re incredibly proud of the Get Set programme: for over a decade now it has been helping young people to develop important life skills and maintain healthy, active lifestyles. With Paris 2024 just around the corner, we have a really important role to play in using the power of the Olympic Games to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation, and our aim for Path To Paris is that as many young people as possible are inspired to get moving thanks to the stories of our extraordinary athletes.”
David Clarke, Chief Executive of Paralympics GB said: “Path To Paris is a great opportunity to reach and engage more young people and their families in physical activity by building the excitement around this year’s Paralympic Games. We know that participation levels among young disabled people are disproportionately low compared to non-disabled people and Path To Paris will provide teachers and parents with lots of inclusive and accessible resources and activities to encourage more young people to get active. Hopefully this initiative will be the catalyst for many future Paralympic careers."
Liz Aitken, Head of Children and Young People at Sport England said:"It's amazing to see so many people taking part In Path to Paris, and we are proud to support this programme which brings together family, friends and communities through physical activity.
“Enjoying being active from a young age can help children and young people see the positive mental and physical health benefits of activity for the rest of their lives. It's Important we continue to encourage this, as we know through Sport England's latest Active Lives Children and Young people survey less than half of children and young people are meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines for activity."
Creating positive experiences for children and young people is a key issue Sport England is tackling through our Uniting the Movement strategy, and programmes like Path to Paris look to achieve just this."
Schools Minister Damian Hinds said:“The Olympic and Paralympic Games provide the perfect inspiration to get children and young people engaged in sports and try something new which could spark a lifelong passion for exercise and fitness.“We’re committed to playing our part in supporting all pupils to be physically active through our School Sport and Activity Action Plan which sets out to achieve equal access to sport and two hours of PE a week.
"We are also supporting schools to provide high quality PE and sport to children with SEND in mainstream, special and Alternative Provision settings through new tools and resources delivered through our Inclusion 2024 grant.”
Get your school, community group, or family involved now, so you’re ready to begin your journey to Paris! Learn more at www.getset.co.uk/pathtoparis