What is Sporting Champions?

Sporting Champions is a Sport England initiative which inspires young people by giving them the chance to meet their sporting heroes face-to-face. We organise around 450 visits each year, bringing world-class athletes into local communities throughout the country. Through our work, we hope to encourage youngsters to be more active so they can live up to their potential in sport and in every other part of their lives.

What we do

Our main goal is to show young people sport can and should be fun – we want to sow the seeds that will start a lifelong enjoyment of physical activity. We’ve found that children get the best out of our events when they have real interaction with the Champion – things like question and answer sessions, sporting demonstrations and coaching workshops work well. For this reason, we don’t really go in for formal ceremonies, photo calls or cutting ribbons. Instead, the emphasis during our visits is always on getting involved, having fun and sticking with it.

What are the criteria?

The most important guideline for a Sporting Champions visit is that they must have a target audience of young people (up to 25 years old).

In addition to this, the visit must:

1. be linked to on-going plans to increase participation amongst young people in community sport.
2. encourage/trigger long-term sports development opportunities.
3. provide meaningful interaction between the young people and the Champion e.g. coaching sessions, presentations, Q&A sessions, etc

In order to support this, each visit should be linked to at least one of the following key themes:

  • Increase participation in community sport

  • Club and school links

  • Leadership and volunteering

    • For school visits, being mindful of the post school gap, we ask that visits enhance pathways into local clubs and facilities to encourage lifelong participation and suggest that Champions work with Key Stage 4 pupils.

    Why Sporting Champions?

    The Sporting Champions scheme is a unique initiative that is helping to create a new generation of physically active people in communities up and down the country. By using athletes from a wide range of sports, we’re reaching more young people and inspiring them to take part in sports on a regular basis.

    The visits themselves can be tailored to fit the needs of the community group. They can involve coaching workshops, interactive sessions or targeted activity such as contributing to the leadership and volunteering agenda.

    In terms of benefits, a Sporting Champions visit will:

  • Raise awareness of sport and the benefits of physical activity

  • Engage and enthuse young people

  • Increase the profile of a variety of sports and local sports clubs

  • Improve behaviour in the local community

  • Motivate young people in their wider lives

  • Raise the profile of a particular event


    • Arranging a Visit

    Obviously demand is high for visits from our Sporting Champions and we’re unable to meet all requests so visits are allocated rather than applied for.

    We ask County Sport Partnerships (CSPs) in each county to nominate relevant events for Champions to attend, so you will need to contact your CSP, click here to find out who you need to contact.

    To find out more about how to arrange a Sporting Champions visit, please email
    sportingchampions@creatingexcellence.co.uk     or contact your CSP direct.