PREVIEW

Team GB is reaching out to the nation to loudly get behind the 327 Olympians representing us at the Paris Olympic Games this week to holler with all of our very different voices: "We are with you all the way!"

Britain has 172 women and 155 men chomping at the bit to step up onto the world's biggest sporting stage as they take to tracks, pools and pitches for the 2024 Olympic Games, including representatives from all four nations including England's Tom Daley, Scotland's Duncan Scott, Northern Ireland's Rebecca Shorten and Wales's Anna Hursey.

Now Team GB is rallying fans from all over the UK to get together in one voice - no matter how different they sound to cheer the team on to greatness.

Award-winning writer Henry Baker has created an inspiring video 'Accents to Greatness', filmed in towns, villages and cities across the whole of the UK. He captured local phrases and nuances but all with the same message to remind the athletes of home and let them know the nation is well and truly backing them.

It was commissioned by Team GB as research revealed that three-quarters of Brits are proud of their own accent and almost half of those (48%) felt it was key part of their identity.

A cool 15% even think it's 'canny' (Geordie for 'good') that other people can't understand their local slang. Overall, 53% said they feel inspired when they hear an accent like their own, 43% said it made them feel like home and 30% felt a sense of belonging.

So, hearing messages of support from across the Channel will make triathlete Sam Dickinson from York feel 'reight' and be 'sound' for Liverpudlian heptathlete Katrina Johnson-Thompson.

Professor Rob Drummond, expert in socio-linguistics, shares the science about how something is said has such a huge emotional impact.
"The way we speak is fundamentally linked to who we are, to our sense of identity. Our accent and dialect can provide clues as to where we're from, our social background, and how we identify in relation to other groups of people," he says.

"Both consciously and unconsciously, the way we speak is a tool we can use to help manage our relationships with the people around us. It's one way of saying 'I belong to this group', or 'I associate with these values'. Even when people seem to be saying the same thing, how they say it can make all the difference, and people often have very strong feelings about these differences.

"Spoken language is wonderfully diverse, and that diversity is something that should be recognised, highlighted, and most of all, enjoyed."
You can watch and enjoy the full 'Accents to Greatness' video at https://youtu.be/WdzANUBug_I