About Us
Aspire to Greatness helps young people and adults build confidence, movement skills and wellbeing through fun, inclusive coaching and enrichment in schools, communities and on the track.
Co-founded by Daley Thompson CBE and Kate Staples MBE, we help everyone we work with develop movement, strength, coordination and wellbeing, and build a lifelong love of sport. It starts with children, and it doesn’t stop there.
“Kate and the team are on a mission to get young people active – they give every child the chance to move with confidence, feel included, and discover a love for being active.”
Daley Thompson CBE, Double Olympic Champion
Co-founders of Daley Thompson Academies
Our Story in 2005
Kate Staples was on her way to the Olympics. A GB international and British pole vault record holder, she was mid-career when a broken neck, sustained filming Gladiators, brought her competing days to an end.
What it didn’t end was the passion. Kate still loved athletics as much as she ever had, and if she couldn’t compete herself, she was going to channel that passion into inspiring other people to compete.
That mission became personal again a few years later. When Kate tried to get her own young daughter into athletics, she hit the wall so many parents hit. Long waiting lists, and clubs that only really started catering for children from around twelve. At grassroots level, for the little ones who just wanted to run, jump and be active, there was almost nothing.
So Daley and Kate decided to do something about it. They began working directly with schools, using athletics to empower young people, whatever their age or ability.
Then, during lockdown, everything changed. Parents came to us asking for help keeping their children active, and we saw a bigger opportunity: to bring children onto the track itself. To make our athletics tracks busier, to give children a safe and welcoming space to be active, and to build a real pathway between schools, our academies and local athletics clubs.
That’s how Aspire to Greatness became what it is today. A place where every child, of every age and ability, can discover what they’re capable of. And not only children. From four-year-olds taking their first sprint to adults in their seventies, athletics belongs to all of us, and it belongs in everyday life.
Beyond the track
Athletics has taken us further than the UK. At The BodyHoliday in St Lucia, Kate designed and set up Wellfit, the resort’s fitness and wellbeing programme, and she and Daley have coached guests there for years. Ten years on, Wellfit is still going strong.
It’s the same belief that runs through everything we do. Movement is for everybody, at every stage of life, and it should feel good.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple: to empower as many young people through athletics as possible.
We’re proud to be the official partner of Everyone Active, and together we’re working to bring the joy of athletics to thousands more children right across the country. We’ll keep building relationships with schools, welcoming children into our academies, and helping them find a sport they can love for life.
Empowering young people through athletics, and building a pathway for future champions.
