Charity challenge motivates over 100,000 to be inspired by London 2012 and get active

Gold Challenge, part of Sport England's Places People Play programme, has motivated over 100,000 people to take on an Olympic & Paralympic sport themed challenge in order to raise money for charity. 

The charity challenge which is partnered with Team GB and Sport England receives no public funding and has achieved its objectives six months ahead of target.

This number firmly establishes Gold Challenge as one of the most successful charity challenges in the UK and means that Gold Challenge is playing a significant part in creating a lasting legacy from the Olympic & Paralympic Games in London.  Over £3 million has been pledged by participants and many UK charities are benefiting significantly from the programme which has allowed them to be part of the excitement of London 2012.

Dan Thompson, Chairman & Founder, is delighted with the success, "This is a fantastic milestone and I am thrilled with what we have achieved.  We have come a long way since launch and made many changes to the programme that mean we now have a proven model to inspire people to become more active. We have started the process of talking to potential funders to ensure that we can create a series of future challenges that can act as a lasting legacy for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond to the 2014 Commonwealth Games."

Gold Challenge gives all ages and abilities the chance to raise money for charity by taking on an Olympic themed challenge, the most popular being the 2012km Challenge: travel 2012km or 201.2km as an individual or team in an Olympic discipline.  

Gold Challenge is partnered with Team GB / British Olympic Association and is the UK’s only Olympic based charity challenge.

Sport England’s Director of Sport Lisa O’Keefe said: “It’s fantastic that so many people of all ages have felt inspired to do a sporting challenge and raise millions of pounds for charity. Gold Challenge is giving people all over the country opportunities to give sport a go as part of the Olympic and Paralympic legacy. Our challenge is to help people to stick with sport for the long term.”