With medallists from 16 to 58, it’s time to let Team GB inspire you to get off your sofa and enjoy sport
INSPIRED by our Olympic heroes, the UK is holding its biggest ever sports day on Saturday.
ITV will turn off all its channels between 9.30am and 10.30am to encourage people to get off the sofa and into the fresh air.
The National Lottery-backed I Am Team GB sporting events will take place around the nation – and will feature a host of our Rio stars.
Visit the to see what events are happening near you.
Here, a Team GB legend says YOU should get off your backside and get involved.
You’ve watched our Olympic heroes day after day for the last few weeks and it’s been brilliant.
But now it’s time for you to turn off the telly, get off your backsides and get out and try sport for yourself.
Don’t leave it that you cheered and laughed and smiled and cried in front of the TV and that’s it.
Now use that inspiration to make yourself as special as YOU can be because, at the end of the of the day, that is what our elite athletes have done.
They have trained hard and shown themselves and their team-mates that they have reached their full potential.
I would say to other people, just get out there and make yourself feel good.
Our success in the Olympic Games has brought such a feelgood factor for the country and, after lots of doom and gloom, put the Great back into Britain. Sport has the power to inspire like that.
What I loved about it most was that there were so many different sports exposed to our attention and there are so many opportunities for people to take part in something that suits them.
Whoever thought we’d be winning Olympic medals at trampolining?
Sport is not just about running or physical contact.
Sport is about social inclusion; it’s about getting your brain thinking, "Do you know what, I feel better about myself," and getting your body feeling healthier.
Use sport for that. Get yourself out there and try something. Find out what is going on. Take the kids. Take the whole family.
There are those who are inspired by GB sports people doing well and are really proud of them but who may have never done any sport themselves or never even contemplated taking up sport, for whatever reason.
I would tell them, just go out and have a bit of fun, even if it's watching other people doing it.
Just be part of that moment and, even better, take people who will be the next generation to be inspired; children; grandchildren; friends.
Give them the opportunity to try things out, because our champions only became champions by being given the opportunity in the first place to find something that they got hooked on and found they had a talent for.
They loved it, stuck to it, enjoyed it and that talent became a success and they fulfilled a dream.
You never know, if youngsters go out there and try a sport and get hooked on it, in years to come they might be the new champions, remembering the time they were inspired by an I Am Team GB event.
I was fortunate as a kid that I got to have a go at quite a few sports and pastimes, most of which I was not that good at, to be honest, like gym and ballet. But I did enjoy martial arts.
Then my PE teacher at school spotted I had some talent at athletics and got me to join a local club where my coach nurtured that talent and I loved it.
It was the only thing that made me feel good about myself. I was rubbish at everything at school, academically, but sport was who I was.
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I have seen, through my charity, the lives of children transformed by meeting athletes who inspired them.
I was also reminded by that photo of a very young Laura Trott meeting Sir Chris Hoy how I was inspired, at the age of 14, by Sebastian Coe in the Los Angeles Olympics.
Then we were on holiday at Butlins and Tessa Sanderson turned up in this big car with a javelin down the side. She had a white shell suit and her gold medal, just back from the Olympics, and I had my photo taken with her. I remember her holding her medal and in my head I decided there and then I was going to be an Olympic champion.
Some young people this weekend may have the same inspirational moments with an Olympic athlete that will stay with them forever.
The other thing I loved about Rio was that we had medallists right from 16-year-old Amy Tinkler in the gymnastics to Nick Skelton in the showjumping at 58.
You don’t have to be a 16-year-old to be inspired to do something in your life to feel proud about.
Obviously it is a massive thing to get young kids into sport because of the positive effects of sport on confidence, on self-esteem, on health, on fulfilling potential, on coping with ups and down and learning to succeed, but it is not just for young people.
So put down your smartphone and go for a walk, go for a run, get on a bike, go to an I Am Team GB event.
Do whatever you like - but do something.