7 May 2023 is Kids’ Athletics Day! Organised by World Athletics, Kids' Athletics Day is dedicated to celebrating children and young people everywhere participating in athletics and being active.
The theme for this year's Kids’ Athletics Day is MOVE, PLAY, EXPLORE. Whether it’s moving to get from A to B, playing athletics activities with friends, or exploring new skills, the aim is to encourage kids to get out there and have fun being active!
To celebrate, we caught up with some stars of European Athletics - about their childhood athletics memories, what inspired them to get moving, and their words of wisdom for the next generation...
Ivana Vuleta
"I am very grateful to my parents and my coaches who taught me how to express myself through sport. I would be a very unhappy person if I didn't have the chance to feel all the strong emotions and life lessons that I have experienced during my career. I feel so enriched by how much my sport has given me.
"If you receive so much, you must be prepared to give back as well. It always feels special to spend time with kids from my club and I realise how small gestures can make them so happy. It can inspire them and you never know, one of them may go on to achieve more. I am always happy to share my experiences with other aspiring athletes."
Mujinga Kambundji
“Athletics is the best school one can attend. It allows you to confront yourself with others and most importantly with yourself. To set personal goals and to do everything to reach them. To learn how to win and especially to learn how to lose without thinking that the world is falling apart.”
Pia Skrzyszowska
“My journey with athletics began as a small girl who was shy and introverted. However, thanks to this sport, I turned into a person open to the world, curious to learn new things and full of self-confidence.
"Perhaps the most important aspect of my sporting life is the fact that, thanks to training and trips, I had the opportunity to make friends with people from all over the world and learn about the customs and cultures of other countries.
"But apart from all the wonderful experiences that athletics gives me, the most important rule for me is that you have to enjoy what you do. Sport can bring us a lot of positive emotions, but also difficult moments that teach us valuable lessons. That's why it's important to learn from experience and look at many situations with distance and humour.
"My sporting path began with childhood dreams, and I know that every child who starts his or her adventure with any sport should have the courage to dream of great things. Because it is these dreams and passion that lead us on the path of success and fulfilment.”
Anita Włodarczyk
“I always loved sports as a child. In elementary school, I loved athletics and basketball. I didn’t even know what a hammer throw was, but I liked sprinting, long jump and throwing a jerk ball. I watched track and field events on TV, like the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and I watched relay races (4 x 400m) the most.
“I started to do athletics at 16 years old and, to be honest, it wasn't my dream to throw a hammer! So, I started to train for shot put and discus throw. When I started to train for hammer throw at the age of 17, my dream was to win medals at the Olympic Games, World Athletics Championships and European Athletics Championships, but I was not dreaming of a world record back then. However, thanks to lots of hard work, here I am today with many medals and a world record of 82.98m!
"What would I say to young athletes? First of all, training should be a lot of fun. For me, from the beginning of my sports career to today I have gone to training with great joy! Also, in difficult moments, don't give up - keep fighting. Dream and fight for those dreams. And most importantly, remember that to become a champion in your event you have to give 100 percent, with your whole heart in training and you will see the results.”
Steve Cram
“When I was really young, I wasn’t actually sure I was going to be any good at athletics because everything was really short at junior school and I wasn’t very fast at all!
“But everything changed when I went to senior school at 11 and we were able to go a bit further. I did cross country and ran 400m and that’s how I ended up joining the athletics club. The athletics club was great and I’d meet my friends two to three times a week, almost like a youth club.
“But what really got me hooked was the very first race I ran for the club. It was a big event (which I didn’t realise!) in South Shields where the Great North Run now finishes. There were a few stars of the day, like Brendan Foster and Dave Bedford, who I had seen on TV, but there were also about 10,000 people who turned up to run on a May Bank Holiday weekend, with the sun shining.
“I ran my first mile race, and I had no idea how I was going to do, but I finished second and I just thought every athletics meeting was like that. It had an incredible atmosphere, so many people watching, and I won prizes, which I’d never done in football or anything else... I won an ornamental cannon and a set of cufflinks (which every 11-year-old really needs)!
“But those were prized possessions for a long time – the cannon sat on my mum’s mantelpiece at home for many, many years because that was my first ever prize in athletics.
"And that’s what got me hooked – the atmosphere, being on my own rather than part of a team – and from that point on the athletics club became my second home!”
Paula Radcliffe
“My childhood athletics memories are very special to me. I was very lucky to have supportive parents and grandparents as well as teachers at school. Indeed, when we moved due to my dad’s job, he spent a lot of time researching the best athletics clubs in the area and found Alex and Rosemary Stanton at Bedford.
"They guided me through my career and the foundations were laid in a lot of fun training and racing with my teammates at Bedford and County A.C. We learned how to get the best from ourselves, to push ourselves and to work together as a team.
"I consider myself extremely lucky to have had this opportunity growing up and continue today to do what I can to help all kids get access to fun sports/athletic education alongside their academic studies.”
Karsten Warholm
Jakob Ingebrigtsen
Join in the fun!
Find out more about Kids Athletics and get involved at home with World Athletics' 'Kids Athletics Day at home' toolkit which has everything kids need to get moving, including activity cards, a 'design your own spikes' template, and an activity pyramid with different running, jumping and balancing challenges!
And don't forget to share your Kids' Athletics Day celebrations on social media using the hashtag #KidsAthleticsDay and tagging @WorldAthletics.