The Nation Celebrates I Am Team GB - The UK's Biggest Ever Sports Day
The National Lottery and ITV hosted I Am Team GB on 27 August
The weekend saw the public and Team GB’s returning Olympians united for I Am Team GB as Saturday's (27 August) landmark event became the UK’s biggest EVER sports day. Over 2,600 clubs and organisations of all sizes across the UK put on events for free and invited the pubic to try out a whole range of different sporting activities, some alongside a selection of Team GB’s returning Olympic heroes.
The National Lottery and ITV collaborated on I Am Team GB to encourage people to get out and get active while also celebrating the public’s unique contribution, through playing The National Lottery, to Team GB’s success. Team GB, who achieved their best medal haul in 108 years in Rio amassing an astonishing 67 medals (27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze) sent a selection of their finest Olympians, with over 50 medals between them including 21 Gold, 22 Silver and 7 Bronze, the length and breadth of the UK to support I Am Team GB, the nation’s biggest ever sports day. ITV also switched off all their channels for an hour at 9.30am to encourage the nation to get involved.
Events, clubs and venues across the UK had a fantastic response, breaking record attendances and participation numbers. Well over 100,000 people signed up for I Am Team GB via the website with actual attendance numbers expected to be nearly double that figure. The hashtag, #iamteamgb, trended world-wide on twitter on the day, with contributions showing that the nation had indeed got up and been active across thousands of I Am Team GB events. ITV talent including Alesha Dixon, Ben Fogle, Linda Robson, Stacey Soloman, Lydia Bright plus members of the Coronation Street and Emmerdale cast were on hand to lend their support at events across the country.
Grassroots organisations were quick to herald the success of the initiative.
Tom Williams, Chief Operating Officer for parkrun UK – parkrun events accounting for nearly 400 of the day’s 2,600-odd events – said: "Across the length and breadth of the UK people have come together at our events to celebrate sport. Today we've seen 90,000 different people cross a parkrun finish-line in the UK, an increase of 23,000 on the same Saturday last year, and all of us at parkrun feel an immense sense of pride in being part of #IAmTeamGB."
Greg Rutherford, Olympic Bronze Medallist, who hosted an I Am Team GB event in his own back garden for kids from his local athletics club, Marshall Milton Keynes Athletics Club, said: “It was great to be part of an incredible performance by Team GB in Rio and to see the impact of that since coming home. I Am Team GB was a superb opportunity to use the power of that performance to encourage people to get out and give sport a go. Every Olympian’s journey has to start somewhere so it was brilliant to be able to welcome local youngsters in to my garden and get them jumping. ITV switching off their network was a marvellous gesture to kick off the day and, given their contribution to sport and Team GB’s success, it was wholly appropriate that The National Lottery were also involved.”
Just some of the I Am Team GB highlights on the day included Max Whitlock, double Gold Medal-winning Gymnast and Crista Cullen, member of the Women’s Gold Medal-winning Hockey Team, at London’s iconic Copper Box Arena. Gold Medallist and new World Record holder in the Women’s team pursuit, Elinor Barker, graced the cobbles of Coronation Street while the set of Emmerdale welcomed Triathlon Gold Medallist Alistair Brownlee, as the rolling hills and dales hosted a Duathlon. The Ricoh Arena had Liam Heath, Gold and Silver Medallist in the kayaking while Reading Rowing Club welcomed a whole host of medal winners including; Gold Medal winner in the Women’s Coxless Pair Helen Glover, Gold Medal winner in the Men’s Coxless Four Alex Gregory and Silver Medal winner Zoe de Toledo, cox in the Women’s eight.
The National Sports Centre in Cardiff saw Silver Medallist in the Women’s 400m and 800m freestyle, swimmer Jazz Carlin. Gateshead International Stadium in the North East saw Silver Medalist in the Women’s individual trampoline Bryony Page, Silver Medal-winning rower Katie Greves and Bronze Medal winner in the Women’s floor exercise, Gymnast Amy Tinkler.
Glasgow National Hockey Centre welcomed Silver Medal-winning Rower Karen Bennett while the golden sands of Hope Cove in Devon had Giselle Ansley, member of the Women’s Gold Medal-winning Hockey Team.
To celebrate the support the nation gives them by playing The National Lottery, Team GB's returning Olympians joined famous faces from ITV at events across the UK. Over £80 million has been raised each year by National Lottery players to help fund elite athletes during the four-year build-up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
I Am Team GB took place in conjunction with the British Olympic Association (BOA), UK Sport and was supported by Join In.
www.iamteamgb.com
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For further information, please contact:
Camelot Press Office – 020 7632 5711
ITV Press Office – 020 7157 3056
Notes to editors:
About Camelot/The National Lottery:
- National Lottery funding plays a key role in the UK’s sporting success, and National Lottery Players have contributed over £80m each year during the four-year build up to Rio.
- To date over 4,500 elite athletes have benefitted from National Lottery funding, enabling them to have access to some of the best coaching, facilities and support staff in the world, as they prepare for Rio 2016 and beyond.
- More than £5 billion of National Lottery Funding has been invested into grassroots sports, creating opportunities for everyone to get fit. The money has created and upgraded facilities, funded coaches and equipment and supported initiatives to get more people playing sport.
- Each week, Camelot generates over, on average, £36 million for National Lottery-funded projects – in total £35 billion has now been raised and more than 490,000 individual grants have been made across the UK, the biggest programme of civic and social regeneration since the 19th Century.
- For further information on Camelot, The National Lottery and its games, please visit: www.camelotgroup.co.uk and www.national-lottery.co.uk
About ITV Responsibility
As a broadcaster at the heart of popular culture, ITV has the opportunity to use its reach to millions of people, to have a positive impact on society. Every day, our programmes give us the chance to share stories and raise awareness of social topics and champion causes to millions of people. A key pillar of ITV’s responsibility strategy is harnessing the power of our programmes and empowering our people to make a difference to communities and causes.
Our Responsibility strategy focuses on three pillars: People, Planet and Partnerships:
People - To reflect modern society through our programmes, workforce and services, ensuring we’re relevant and accessible to all.
Planet - To increase awareness of environmental sustainability through our programmes whilst reducing the environmental impact of our operations.
Partnerships - To harness the power of our programmes and empower our people to make a difference to communities and causes.
Every day, our programmes give us the chance to share stories and raise awareness of social topics and champion causes to millions of people.
Through on air appeals and campaigns like Soccer Aid, along with more localised support through community engagement and volunteering, we’re committed to inspiring, engaging and empowering our stakeholders to make a difference.
For more information about ITV’s Corporate Responsibility commitments and activities visit itvresponsibility.com
About ITV Commercial’s ITV AdVentures
Content creation is ITV’s core business activity and ITV AdVentures is a natural extension of this, offering advertisers a brand new truly innovative and engaging way in which to connect with consumers. We work with advertisers to specifically producer content as part of a campaign idea, response to a brief or an addition to an advertisers on going activity. Previous examples of full TV ads created through ITV AdVentures the Territorial Army in Afghanistan and the Suzuki co-brand activity.
About British Olympic Association
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its mission is to develop, promote and protect the Olympic Movement in our territory in accordance with the Olympic Charter. The BOA achieves this through:
- Working in partnership with our members and key stakeholders to deliver world-leading services and support to enable British athletes to reach their full potential at the Olympic Games, Olympic Winter Games and other IOC-sanctioned events
- Working in partnership with our members and key stakeholders to provide athletes with relevant support on the journey to, during and following their Olympic careers
- Engaging people throughout the United Kingdom to pursue their very own goals and dreams through the Olympic Values and the example of Team GB Olympians
- Being the independent voice of Olympic Sport and collaborating with our members and other sport stakeholders, both domestically and internationally, to support the continued growth and overall health of the Olympic Movement in the UK
About UK Sport
UK Sport is the nation’s high-performance sports agency. Its vision is to inspire the nation through Olympic and Paralympic success. Primarily this means working with our partner sporting organisations to deliver medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. UK Sport’s strategic direction helped British sports and athletes deliver 65 Olympic and 120 Paralympic medals at London 2012 and 4 Olympic and 6 Paralympic medals at Sochi 2014. UK Sport also has responsibility for activities best delivered at a UK level, such as: bidding for and staging major sporting events in this country; increasing sporting activity and influence overseas; and promoting sporting conduct, ethics and diversity in society. UK Sport is funded by a mix of Government Exchequer and Lottery income. More @ www.uksport.gov.uk
