Search for everyday people who could become Olympic and Paralympic athletes

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A Paralympic dressage hopeful from Bristol is urging others to find out if they have the potential to one day represent Team GB.

With 50 days to go until this summer's Tokyo Games begin, Tegan Vincent-Cooke is backing a new campaign to find the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

The Home 2 The Games search means anyone can carry out three simple challenges at home and submit them online before a team of expert sport scientists and coaches assess them.

The project is being run by UK Sport. Team GB, Paralympics GB and EIS and aims to pair up potential athletes with development programmes.

Tegan says riding gives her a freedom she can't experience anywhere else. Credit: Tegan Vincent-Cooke

Para-dressage rider and multiple national champion Tegan Vincent-Cooke started riding when she was just four years old.

By the time she was nine she was competing, but she said it "didn't really click" that she could take it further.

She said: "It wasn’t until the London 2012 Paralympic Games, when I was in my mid-teens, and seeing people like me that I thought I could get there.

"The main reason why I didn't see myself having a career in the sport from a young age was because there was no-one out there like me that I could see.

"Now that I am currently working towards that goal, I do want to create a pathway so that people of all races and colours can join with me and enjoy the sport for what it is.”

Who is the project looking for?

People between 11 and 23 years old who are sporting or physically active to compete in Olympic sport

People between 15 and 34 with an impairment which makes them eligible to participate in Paralympic sport

What do people need to do?

For Olympic sport, potential athletes need to complete a 20m sprint, a broad jump and an open skill challenge. 

For Paralympic sport, potential athletes need to complete a 20m push or sprint, a pick-up and throw and an open skill challenge.

How to apply

Potential athletes can upload their scores and fill in a short form about themselves and their sporting background on www.FromHome2TheGames.com.

The deadline is Monday 6 September.

Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair of UK Sport, said: “Our hope is that every young person that gets involved with From Home 2 The Games will have a fantastic, positive experience of sport and, wherever it might lead, will be better for having engaged with it. 

"We are committed to discovering the nation’s exceptional sporting talent of tomorrow and building a more inclusive and diverse Olympic and Paralympic family."