That was the message delivered to thousands of young people at the launch of Sportivate, part of the Places People Play mass participation legacy programme.
Sport England is investing £32 million of National Lottery funding in Sportivate, which will give 14- to 25-year olds the chance to receive six to eight weeks of coaching in a sport of their choice.
It will help those who aren’t currently playing sport in their own time to get out and give it a go and it is hoped undreds of thousands of teenagers and young adults will benefit from this new sports programme that goes to the heart of the legacy promise made by Seb Coe in Singapore in 2005 to ‘inspire young people to choose sport.
Sportivate is being delivered by the network of 49 county sports partnerships who are working with local providers and sports clubs to help the young people to continue taking part long after they have completed their course.
The Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson, pictured above with young female badminton players at the launch of Sportivate, said “This £32 million Lottery programme launched by Sport England will give hundreds of thousands of teenage and young adults across the country the opportunity to try out and get coaching in the sport of their choice.”
As an additional incentive, those who still playing sport three months after the end of their course will have the chance to enter a ballot for free London 2012 tickets. Sport England has hundreds of Olympic and Paralympic tickets available for Sportivate participants via the London 2012 Ticketshare initiative.