Team GB and ParalympicsGB: inspiring children to get active

Get Set is Team GB and ParalympicsGB’s youth engagement programme, originally created as the official London 2012 education programme. In the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, they decided to use the excitement of the event to increase levels of physical activity among families from lower socio-economic groups in the UK. Together, and with funding from Sport England and Spirit of 2012, we came up with Travel to Tokyo, a challenge to children and their families to virtually travel the distance from the UK to Tokyo through physical activity.

We first set out to understand the barriers preventing low-income families from being more physically active and discovered that a lack of time, lack of understanding of what constitutes physical activity, and lack of enjoyment of physical activity were especially difficult obstacles. To achieve the overarching goal of getting families more active, we therefore had to address the pain points and change their attitudes and behaviours towards exercise. Goals of the programme included:

• shifting participants from not considering physical activity to engaging in physical activity regularly;
• changing people’s perceptions of what constitutes physical activity;
• providing opportunities for physical exercise through activities that could be performed at home, with no equipment; and
• providing motivation through challenges, events, and rewards.

Travel to Tokyo was a huge success, despite the Covid pandemic and the accompanying lockdowns and postponement of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The programme reached 951,445 students, of whom over 258,500 were from schools with high numbers of disadvantaged pupils. Participant families clocked up the equivalent of 396 years of physical activity, and parents felt it was easy to find places to exercise and be more active. In fact, 85% of parents from the lowest-income families said they intended to do more exercise in the future, after taking part in the programme.

By having a clear picture of the audience’s needs and shaping programme objectives around those needs, Team GB and ParalympicsGB were able to plan for and achieve immense positive impact.