Sport Aid
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Sport Aid (also known as Sports Aid) was a sport-themed campaign for African famine relief held in May 1986, involving several days of all-star exhibition events in various sports, and culminating in the Race Against Time, a 10 km
fun run A fun run is a friendly race that involves either road running or cross country running with participants taking part for their own enjoyment rather than competition. A fun run will usually be held to raise funds for a charity, with sponsors pr ...
held simultaneously in 89 countries. Timed to coincide with a
UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
development conference in New York City, Sport Aid raised $37 million for Live Aid and UNICEF. A second, lower-key Sport Aid was held in 1988.


Organisation

The event was organised by chairman and founder Chris Long, Bob Geldof ( Band Aid and Live Aid) and John Anderson (Head of Global Special Events, UNICEF). A central event was the lighting of a symbolic torch at the United Nations by Omar Khalifa, a champion Sudanese 1500m runner, to signal the start of the 10K races around the world. Khalifa began his journey to the UN on May 16, when he lit a torch from the embers of a fire in El Moweilih relief camp in the Sudan. He was then flown to Athens, where the torch of Africa and the
Olympic torch The Olympic flame is a symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. Several months before the Olympic Games, the Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece. This ceremony starts the Olym ...
were symbolically joined. This marked the first time the Olympic torch had been lit outside of an Olympic Games. Khalifa then ran through 12 European capitals, and was greeted by leaders such as
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
, Prince Charles and
Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
, François Mitterrand,
Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
and Pope
John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
. The events in the United States were not widely publicized, due in part to the
Hands Across America Hands Across America was a public fundraising event on Sunday, May 25, 1986, when 5 to 6.5 million people held hands for 15 minutes in an attempt to form a continuous human chain across the contiguous United States. The attempt to have a co ...
fundraiser, to fight hunger and homelessness, occurring around the same time. Sport Aid was scheduled to take place on the eve of a UN special session on Africa; therefore, the conflict could not be avoided.


1986


Race Against Time

At 15:00 UTC on Sunday, May 25, 1986, runners around the world ran, jogged or walked 10 kilometers, having collected sponsorships or donations to support African famine relief charities. 274 cities held official events, allowing over 19.8 million participants to follow designated courses, with television coverage worldwide.
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
saw 200,000 runners complete the course,
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
hosted 50,000,
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
30,000,
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...
15,000,
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
20,000, Port of Spain 15,000, and
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
10,000. These runners and millions of others set out at the same time to run around their villages or local parks, or simply to take part in this global event. In the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
,
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
participated, along with several running clubs in smaller towns, with New York hosting the flagship race. ''The New York Times'' reported, "With 200,000 Londoners setting the pace, more than 20 million runners in 76 countries ran today in Sport Aid, a global benefit to raise money for the starving of Africa. Sport Aid is considered the biggest mass sport event ever organized.


Other events

Other events included the Ultimate Cricket Match between the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
and the Rest of the World, and a
figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...
exhibition featuring
Torvill and Dean Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) are English ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic, and World champions. At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of a ...
. A
charity record A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's "Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the first ever purpose-made ...
was released to publicize and raise money for the event.
Tears for Fears Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new ...
re-recorded their hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" as "
Everybody Wants to Run the World "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a song by English pop rock band Tears for Fears. It was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes (musician), Chris Hughes and produced by Hughes. The song was first released on 22 March 198 ...
".


1988


Running All Over the World

In support of the 1988 Sport Aid event, the band Status Quo released the charity single "Running All Over the World", an adaptation of the band's well-known cover of "
Rockin' All Over the World "Rockin' All Over the World" is a rock song written by John Fogerty, formerly of Creedence Clearwater Revival. It made its debut on Fogerty's second solo album in 1975. It was also released as a single, spending six weeks in the US top 40, pea ...
".


Race Against Time


Race

On Sunday, September 11 1988, runners around the world ran, jogged, or walked 5 kilometers, having collected sponsorships or donations to CARE to support African famine relief charities. Celebrities like Madonna, Sting, Eurythmics, and Steve Winwood took part in the race as well.


Video game / aftermath

Also released was the video game tie-in '' The Race Against Time''. The game is considered to have been a commercial failure; Sport Aid had predicted it would raise £1 million for the charity; it instead sold 25,000 copies. Following the game's failure, it was revealed in December 1988 that Sport Aid Limited had £2 million in debt.


See also

*
Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Educat ...
* Children in Need * Band Aid *
USA for Africa United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa) was the name under which 47 predominantly U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily locat ...


References

{{reflist Charity fundraisers 1986 in sports 1988 in sports