Lord Sebastian Coe wants Britain’s youngsters to be there every step of the way as the country’s top athletes set off on the road to Rio.
Coe met with children from three schools at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Wednesday to celebrate the launch of the Get Set Road to Rio mobile app.
The app challenges youngsters to travel the equivalent of the 9298km between the Olympic Park in London and its Rio counterpart.
Youngsters from across the country can run, walk, skip, hop or travel any way they can and Lord Coe says he is delighted that the legacy of London is alive and well.
“The Olympic Games are timeless and not just about sport. They go into local communities, people’s homes, schools, hospitals, they are universal values,” he said.
“It’s really important to see the kids here engaging with the Get Set programme.
“Get Set was important for us and in the lead up to the Games we had 26,000 schools across the UK all understanding and embracing the values around the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“They were seeing how they could adapt and use them in their own classrooms and Get Set was a really important vehicle.
“We’ve got the build up to Rio now and the chance to make the most of the engaging people through the app.”
As well as Lord Coe, children from Brookfield House, William Bellamy Primary, and John Roan schools were also given the chance to meet double Olympic bronze medal winning gymnast Max Whitlock and sprinter Olivia Breen, winner of Paralympic 4x100m relay bronze.
The duo got involved as the youngsters played Boccia, table tennis and goalball and Whitlock says it was great to take a break from training to give something back.
“I’ve learned about Get Set since 2012 and it was a great thing that I found out they were doing,” he said.
“It’s really nice to come down here and see a different side of what I do. It’s all about inspiring a generation and it’s great to be part of it and part of Team GB.
“I am always surprised by how much impact sport can have and it’s amazing to see, we go out to compete and inspire people which people tell us how much we do and that’s amazing.”
One of the students present was 14-year-old Angela Adelaja from John Roan School in Greenwich who says she can’t wait rack up a few kilometres.
“The app looks really fun and it’s something we are all going to get involved with at school,” she said.
“Having the athletes here is amazing and really inspiring for us all.”
© Sportsbeat 2015