GumboFit is an initiative supported by Nike that seeks to ‘normalise’ running as a group, in this case within the black community of Chicago.
It’s an initiative that has lessons for bringing sport to other marginalised groups and creating an envioronment where physical activity can become a part of how they define themselves and take pride in who they are for what they are.
We have seen in recent days the research which shows that a mere seven percent of post primary girls gets the recommended daily level of 60 minutes physical activity.
We have to try to shift this number or risk the non-habit of sedentary behaviour becoming a pattern that defines a life where potential is reduced through lack of taking care of the very element that enables us to fulfil it, our bodies.
Is it too much of a stretch to draw a line from the projects of a mid western US city to the schools of Ireland?
