Children around the world celebrate five years of Kids’ Athletics Day

Road to two million: campaign aims to inspire 700,000-plus kids to get moving in 2026 

Children around the world are celebrating five years of Kids’ Athletics Day by getting involved in the month-long campaign to inspire at least 700,000 more young people to get moving in 2026. 

Kids’ Athletics is an initiative that uses the power of athletics to inspire children around the world to be more active. Since its launch in 2022, Kids’ Athletics Day – celebrated annually on 7 May – has grown into a truly global celebration, reaching 1.3 million children across schools, clubs and communities. Now, to mark the five-year milestone, the goal is to take that total to two million. 

Each Kids’ Athletics Day has offered a new theme and new ways to engage children in fun, inclusive and age-appropriate athletics activities. The 2026 theme celebrates the power of FIVE, highlighting five years of impact and focusing on celebration and connection. This year’s campaign encourages local creativity while contributing to one shared global goal: getting more children moving, more often, through athletics.  

The 2026 campaign kicked off in style as Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo joined 50 local children in his home country of Botswana for a special activation on the eve of the Debswana World Athletics Relays Gaborone 26. In his role as a Kids’ Athletics ambassador, Tebogo encouraged the children as they took part in movement-based activities and relay-inspired challenges. 

Alongside this, the Botswana Athletics Association hosted more than 400 children for a Kids’ Athletics Day festival just outside the National Stadium. The children then had the chance to watch the World Relays in person, receiving tickets from World Athletics and the local organising committee to ensure they were part of history. 

As well as watching from the stands, several children had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join their heroes on the track in their roles as baton kids. For select 4x400m races including all the finals, the baton kids handed over race batons to each team as they were introduced at the start line. The children were embraced by the athletes as they joined in on team introductions, gave high fives and rubbed shoulders with the sport’s stars. 

Uganda leads global leaderboard 

As the five-year participation total moves ever closer to the two million target, member federations around the world are logging their activities on the global leaderboard. 

After just six full days of activities during a campaign period that runs from 1-31 May, Uganda is already well ahead with more than 37,000 kids having participated in 22 activations across the country. 

A four-way battle is emerging for the other podium places as Benin, Brazil, Kenya and Venezuela have each already inspired some 5000 children to take part in multiple events. 

Brazil has so far hosted 54 activations across the country, following a campaign led by the national federation. There are more than 80 athletics training centres across Brazil and the training centre with the highest level of engagement will receive recognition from the Confederação Brasileira de Atletismo. 

Elsewhere, China kicked off its Kids’ Athletics Day celebrations in Linfen on 4 May, when 700 children took part in a day-long festival as part of a larger sports week hosted by the Shanxi Provence. A range of activities were on offer, including a 1km obstacle run around the local park. More activations are planned throughout China, where the target is to reach 10,000 people.  

In Portugal, 3500 children have participated in 19 events held by schools and clubs across the country. Activations have also included teacher and coach education workshops to build local capability, and equipment-making workshops where equipment has been made from recyclables to teach children about the value of sustainability and recycling. Their mascot has also been visiting tourist locations in major cities to promote nationwide presence across all districts.

Per capita, three island nations have made their mark so far – Antigua leads the way, followed by Mauritius and Saint Lucia.

The campaign follows the recent launch of the Kids’ Athletics app, a free digital resource designed to make Kids’ Athletics activities more accessible to children, schools, clubs, coaches, teachers and families around the world. 

This year’s Kids’ Athletics Day campaign runs until 31 May so there is still a long way to go. Check out kidsathleticsday.org for real time results and everything you need to activate in your own community.