A world-class sports facility is celebrating its first birthday and has already welcomed more than half a million visitors.
The Sports and Wellness Hub opened its doors in April 2019 and was part of a £49 million investment in the site and adjoining sports facilities at the University of Warwick.
It was designed to inspire and motivate people to lead more active and healthy lifestyles and has already seen 500,000 visitors including staff, students and members of the local community.
The centre features an indoor climbing and bouldering centre, which has proved popular with people of all ages.
Adult climbers at the centre have climbed Mount Everest 840 times, with children climbers summitting the mountain 126 times.
More than 11 million calories have been burnt at the Sports and Wellness Hub, with runners in the spacious 230 station gym having ran the distance from London to Tokyo four times.
While in the dedicated zone for strength training, the weight of 500 blue whales has been lifted.
The 25 metre, 12 lane swimming pool with moveable floor has helped teach 500 children to swim and seeing over 60,000 others take a dip.
It has hosted 10,000 fitness sessions with 49,000 participants in the first 12 months and more than 12,000 hours of badminton and in excess of 13,000 hours of squash have been played.
The Sports and Wellness Hub has temporarily closed its doors after government guidance regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
The exercise class timetable has been moved online and made free for all, regardless of whether they are members or not.
Lisa Dodd-Mayne, Director of Sport & Active Communities at the University of Warwick, said: “It has been a brilliant first year in our new Sports and Wellness Hub and we would like to thank everyone who has visited us to use the world-class facilities so far.
“It’s disappointing we aren’t able to host a celebration at the hub due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it has certainly been a year of huge milestones and the stats show that.
“The hub is an incredible facility and is changing people’s lives just as we hoped that it would.
“We have seen thousands of people from the surrounding community join us to use our facility, which is what we envisaged when designing the hub.
“When we re-open our doors we will strive to keep delivering a diverse and innovative programme of planning and events to inspire even more people to get active”
To view the timetable of virtual classes and access the other wide range of resources to help keep active at home visit www.warwick.ac.uk/sport