The biggest European basketball clubs started February by sharing an invitation to their fans – ‘Let’s walk together!’. The teams of the “Turkish Airlines EuroLeague” and the “7DAYS EuroCup” have invited their communities to join the virtual steps challenge, with a goal to walk for their basketball team, in this way not only expressing support for the teams but also to foster the values of physical activity and healthiness. The steps challenge, which unites 38 European clubs, was initiated in the walking app “#walk15”, founded in Lithuania.
“Look Gigi, I beat you today. More steps in “One Team Walking Challenge’,“ says Kyle Hynes, star-player of Milano “Olimpia”.
“Tomorrow I will walk more for sure!” answers Luigi Datome.
The initiator of the “One Team Walking Challenge” in the mobile walk app “#walk15” is the EuroLeague Basketball’s “One Team” social responsibility program. The program aims to unite all EuroLeague and EuroCup basketball clubs to use their influence and power to unite communities and contribute to the integration of the most vulnerable groups in society.
“We are very happy to launch this challenge that has had a very good reception among our clubs, players and fans. We think the “One Team Games” and the “One Team Walking Challenge” are great initiatives to encourage people to stay active and to promote healthy habits, which is one of our aims at One Team. Also, we would like to thank #walk15 for their help on the development and execution of this project and we hope that together we can reach our objective!” says Roser Queraltó, EuroLeague Basketball’s Chief Business Officer.
38 basketball clubs will walk
The steps challenge is part of the “One Team Games”, which will run on 8-11th of February. All “Turkish Airlines Euroleague” and “7DAYS EuroCup” basketball clubs have already started to mobilize their communities to join the “#walk15” app, register for the challenge, and take an active role for their team starting from the 8th of February.
The invitation to download the app and sign up for the challenge was shared by players from Europe’s most famous basketball clubs, including legendary Piraeus “Olympiacos” player Kostas Papanikolaou, “Valencia Basket” star Victor Claver, Milan’s “Olimpia” players Luigi Datome and Kyle Hynes, Athens “Panathinaikos”, Moscow “CSKA”, Istanbul “Fenerbahçe” and dozens of other club players.
The legendary Lithuanian basketball player Ramūnas Šiškauskas and Kaunas “Žalgiris” stars Marek Blaževič and Niels Giffey also invited their fans to take part in the steps challenge.
“As a former sports journalist, I am particularly happy about this project. I never expected that our product, created in Lithuania, could become a tool for all major European basketball clubs. The aim of this steps challenge is to encourage people to be active, to promote values of physical and emotional health, sustainability, and sustainable mobility. All participants are invited to walk 10,000 steps or more per day, thus focusing on supporting their team. We are very happy that the app will unite the communities of as many as 38 major European basketball clubs for the sake of health and sustainability,” says Vlada Musvydaitė-Vilčiauskė, the founder and CEO of the app.
The founder of the “#walk15” app reveals that preparations for the international challenge have been active for up to four months, and new features have been introduced specifically for it.
“Today users can choose from 16 different languages running the app, and we’ve created pre-registration functionality specifically for the challenge, allowing you to join the challenge before it starts. In this way, the steps of the participants will start counting as soon as the challenge starts – at midnight on the 8th of February,” says V. Musvydaitė-Vilčiauskė.
Fans can join the steps challenge and walk for their team by downloading the free walking app “#walk15” from “Google Play” or the “App Store”.
The most active walkers of the challenge will receive special EuroLeague prizes.