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- Rugby joins sporting family in getting active
- Rugby family engaged via social media
- Rugby participation continues to grow at record levels
Rugby legend Jonah Lomu encouraging everyone to get active and get into Rugby on #OlympicDay
Rugby has joined the global sporting family in celebrating #OlympicDay by encouraging men, women and children to ‘Get Active & Get Into Rugby’.
With 6.6 million players getting active across 121 national Member Unions affiliated to the IRB, Rugby continues to experience record growth across all continents.
More and more Unions are actively collaborating with their National Olympic Committees and benefiting from Olympic Solidarity assistance to support the development of Rugby, team preparation and coaching structures as the sport prepares for Rio 2016.
And with #OlympicDay all about Getting Active, the IRB’s Get Into Rugby mass participation programme, aimed at introducing one million new players to Rugby before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, is proving to be a major success story with over 500,000 participants in the last year.
Get Into Rugby Highlights:
- 120 countries registered and geared up to deliver the programme
- 293,000 participants to date in 2014
- More than 500,000 participants since 2013 launch
- 4,968 events have been run in 3,900 locations
- A total of 7,884 personnel – coaches and teachers have been trained to run a GIR programme
- It features in the IOC’s Get Moving toolkit (http://www.olympic.org/sport-for-all)Alongside programmes in Colombia and Brazil where 23,000 young players have been introduced to the sport, Get Into Rugby courses have also proven a hit in China as Sevens prepares for its Youth Olympic Games debut at Nanjing 2014.Find out how you can Get Into Rugby at www.irbgetintorugby.com.Rugby stars from around the globe have been spreading the word on social media. You can join the conversation and view highlights of Rugby’s #OlympicDay events at www.irb.com.From Twitter…USA’s Carlin Isles: @Carlin_Isles It’s Olympic Day! Get active and get into rugby on #olympicday @IRBSevensAustralia’s Shannon Parry: @Shan_Parry @irbwomens Would make my childhood dream a reality. To play on the biggest sporting stageEngland’s Tom Mitchell: @TBobbyMitchell A good day to get out and get active on Olympic Day! Get involved in some rugby on #olympicday @IRBSevensNew Zealand’s Sarah Goss: @Sgoss10 Follow It’s Olympic Day! Dream Big and Work Hard to Demolish those Goals #OlympicDay #Rio2016France’s Clémence Gueucier: @clemgueucier It’s Olympic day, get active and get into rugby on #OlympicDayIRB CEO Brett Gosper, who hosted a live twitter Q&A: @brettgosper Happy Olympic Day! Get Active & Get Into Rugby on #OlympicDay. Join the chat and share your pictures @irbmediaIRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset added: “Sport is about bringing people together, having fun and getting active. Sport has the power to drive social change through its strong values and today we join our sporting friends from around the world in celebration of sport.”“Rugby is united through its character-building values, which are a natural fit with the ethos of Olympism and we are delighted that record numbers of youths are getting active as Rugby in all its forms reaches out to new participants, audiences and commercial partners every year.”Players in the IRB Junior World Championship 2014, IRB Tbilisi Cup, IRB Nations Cup and IRB Pacific Nations Cup have also been expressing their support and sharing the message.To find out more about Rugby and the Olympics, the Rio 2016 qualification process, Olympic Solidarity, Rugby’s Olympic history and other resources, visit www.irb.com/rugbyandtheolympics/