Team GB

Everyone can get involved

Team GB is the nation’s most-loved sports team. As it prepares to take its most diverse team ever to the Olympic Games, it is teaming up with the British Red Cross and our network of 20,000 volunteers to inspire the public to perform acts of kindness.

Motivated by the extraordinary achievements of the athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, there will be many ways for the public to get involved throughout the year. We can show that together, we are more powerful.

Helping in a crisis for 150 years

For 150 years, the British Red Cross has been using the power of kindness to bring people and communities together, no matter who or where they are. Team GB is all about celebrating and showcasing the strength of these connections. It’s not just about one athlete – it’s the fellow athletes, coaches, families, friends and supporters who are also a crucial part of the team. And, collectively, they achieve extraordinary things.

When a crisis hits, a strong community pulls together, rallies around and achieves extraordinary things, too. These range from volunteering to stack sandbags when a neighbour’s house is at risk of flooding, to donating to support people across the globe when disasters strike. No one can get through a crisis alone, just like no one can win a gold medal alone.

Olympic athletes honoured to support Fukushima

Current heptathlon world champion and Team GB athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson was among the group who visited Fukushima. “This was a massive and devastating disaster that took its toll on the people of Japan," she said.

"I visited the former evacuation zone in Fukushima where people received support from the Red Cross immediately following the tsunami and nuclear disaster and looked across to areas that are still no-go zones due to radioactive contamination.

I was fortunate enough to meet some of the people who were directly affected, including children who told me they had lost their homes and everything in them. The Red Cross was there as soon as the disaster struck and is still helping people to rebuild their lives so many years later."

Olympic torch to start its journey in Fukushima

The launch of the partnership on 11 March coincides with the anniversary of the 2011 Japan earthquake, when the Red Cross mobilised to help. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake shook the north-east coast of the country, resulting in a tsunami that left more than 19,000 people dead.

The earthquake and tsunami also triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. In addition to the earthquake and tsunami, this left approximately 470,000 people displaced.

Poignantly, the Olympic torch will start its journey in Japan from the affected region of Fukushima. Team GB athletes Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Andrew Pozzi and Adam Gemili recently visited the area to view the Red Cross’ work there.