25–26 Jan 2025 302 days to go! #RunShow

Kirk Bowyer

Prior to founding Mini Athletics, Kirk worked with elite athletes in various different sports as a strength and conditioning coach. He worked with many professional teams and athletes from football to tennis, formula one racing drivers to Olympians. His role was to improve performance through physical training and prevent injury.

When Kirk and Clare’s son reached 2 years old (in 2016), they wanted to take him to a sporting class but noticed there were very limited options. There were countless soccer and rugby classes but nothing that really tapped into the concept of what children enjoyed the most i.e running, jumping and throwing. In addition, they wanted children to have a magical and imaginative experience of sport. They knew that the first experience of sport should be something they remember for the rest of their life and go onto lead active, healthy lives. As a result, Kirk gave up his job as a strength and conditioning coach and co-founded (alongside Clare), Mini Athletics.

They completed a pilot year in their home city of Cambridge to prove the model. They then sold their first franchise in 2017. Since then, the infrastructure of head-quarters has grown and the franchise network has expanded to 33 franchisees across the UK and 2 master franchises in Ireland and the UAE. They have thousands of children in their program every week and are about to expand into the USA in 2023.