June 16th will be a major milestone for British Olympians and Paralympians, marking 50 days until the start of the Rio 2016 Games. Our athletes will be preparing mentally and physically for the biggest challenge of their lives.
With Get Set’s Road to Rio Challenge, young people and schools can also get into the spirit of the Games. Get Set, the youth engagement programme for Team GB and ParalympicsGB, is calling on schools to take up an inspirational challenge: to get active and imaginative by travelling the full distance from London to Rio.
That’s 9,298km in total. You can use any kind of physical activity – running, swimming, walking or cycling. You might also track the distance travelled during a game of football, netball or dodgeball. Even pogo-sticking and unicycling will help you travel the distance in preparation for the Rio 2016 Games.
This is a great team building activity encouraging 7-19 year-olds to work together and record any sport they do to travel the distance to Rio. Simply enter the minutes of activity at https://www.getset.co.uk/road-to-rio. The Road to Rio app is also available.
There are plenty of exclusive rewards to be won along the way, including sports kit from Team GB, badges marking teams’ progress and personal messages of encouragement from athletes. Schools who travel the furthest stand a chance of winning once-in-a-lifetime visits from Olympic or Paralympic athletes.
Schools are encouraged to share their achievements via the Get Set website or on social media using the hashtag #GSRoadtoRio.
The Road to Rio Challenge isn’t just about promoting physical activity in all its form – it’s also about strengthening the Olympics and Paralympics Values among a new generation. Olympic Values of friendship, excellence and respect, and Paralympic Values of inspiration, determination, courage and equality, are all essential qualities for happy, healthy students.
The Values Awards are a simple way for schools to incentivise and reward young people aged 7-19 for living those Olympic and Paralympic Values. Working through a series of challenges, young people will be volunteering in the community, helping others achieve their goals and developing valuable life skills. There are three levels of Values Award, with age-appropriate challenges:
- Values Stars (ages 7-11)
- Values Champions (ages 11-14)
- Values Ambassadors (ages 14-19)
Getting involved is easy: teachers control all tracking and distribution of awards, all activities are cross-curricular and they can go towards your total distance travelled for the Road to Rio Challenge. Teachers can track their pupils’ progress by uploading details of the schools’ story to https://www.getset.co.uk/road-to-rio.
The Values Awards offer a unique way to help young people reach their potential, equipping them with vital life skills and developing their character.
Get Set’s Road to Rio is delivered by the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association as part of their youth engagement programme. Partly funded by Spirit of 2012, Get Set was a globally recognised London 2012 education programme and continues to develop the legacy of London 2012. Further information is available at https://www.getset.co.uk/.
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