Sir Steve Redgrave sees Sport Makers in Action

7th December 2011

Five-time Olympic Gold medallist, Sir Steve Redgrave has seen first hand how a new batch of sporting heroes are helping get more people active.

Making a special visit to Middlesex University and Brunel University, Sir Steve met some of the country's first official Sport Makers - a growing band of people who are making sport happen in their local community as part of the Olympic and Paralympic legacy.

Sir Steve, our greatest Olympian, joined forces with Sport England in October to launch Sport Makers, a programme for everyone who wants to get their friends, neighbours or colleagues out there enjoying sport.

"I've been really impressed with the early stages of the project and really encouraged by the number of people who have already signed up to Sport Makers", said Sir Steve Redgrave.  "It goes to show you don't need medals to become a sporting hero.  The people I've met have shown that by helping people you know to get involved in sport you can do something amazing for them as well as having fun at the same time."

Sport Makers is aiming to inspire 40,000 people to get involved, with each of them spending at least 10 hours organising and leading sporting activities.

During the visits, Sir Steve saw Sport Maker led sessions and talked to Sport Makers who are already logging hours of organising and leading sporting activities.

In Cumbria in the weeks since the launch, over 200 people have already attended Sport Maker events and some have already logged their 10 hours of local sports volunteering.  The events were held across the County in Barrow, Carlisle, Copeland, Maryport, Whitehaven, Penrith and Kendal.

Jenny, the very first Cumbrian Sports Maker is keeping a blog on the Active Cumbria website and had this to say of her experience so far, "the workshop was the same one that was shown to all the other Sport Makers around the country and I have to be honest was brilliant!".  You can read more of Jenny's blog here.

More workshops will be running throughout 2012 in Cumbria starting in the Spring, to find out when they are happening register at www.sportmakers.co.uk and you will be contacted in the new year.