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Zwift has today announced Pride On, an event series partnership with Athlete Ally.
Athlete Ally is a charitable organisation that works with the sporting landscape campaigning for reform and more inclusivity. This is the third year partnering with Athlete Ally with Zwift sharing the belief that everyone should have equal access in sport.
Pride On events will run during the month of June, with rides and runs taking place every day apart from Sunday. There will be time slots available across multiple time zones. One ride or run completion will unlock the Pride On kit for 2021.
Select rides and runs will be led by prominent members of the Zwift LGBTQIA+ community including Lea Davison, American mountain biker and Olympian, Abby Levene, a pro trail runner, Shanaze Reade, 3x UCI BMX World Champion, Chris Mosier, an American triathlete and duathlete as well as many other community leaders.
New for this year, Workout of the Week each week of June will be designed by LGBTQIA+ community leaders and Zwift employees. Live group workout events will be held on Wednesdays featuring this content or if wanting to workout alone, Zwifters can access these workouts on-demand through the Workout of the Week folder within the Training section in the game.
The celebration of Pride will continue throughout the year, with bi-monthly events running so that Zwifters can come together to celebrate the Zwift LGBTQIA+ community on a regular basis. Throughout the year, Zwift will commemorate landmark dates including World AIDS Day and National Coming Out Day.
On Sunday 13th June, there will be rides and runs throughout the day dedicated to TogetheRIDE produced by AIDS/LifeCycle with the events honouring the 1.2 million people in the US living with HIV. The ambition of the TogetheRIDE by AIDS/LifeCycle is to get people to collectively move 1.2 million miles to raise awareness, fundraise with a goal of raising $5 million and highlight the fight against AIDS.
“Zwift continues to be a leader in inclusivity in sport and we are excited to partner for the third year,” said Hudson Taylor, founder and executive director of Athlete Ally. “Beyond June, we’ll be working together to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community throughout the year, and to further the message of equal access, opportunity and experience in sport.”
Lisa Bourne, senior director, diversity, inclusion and social impact at Zwift, added: “I’m excited to celebrate Pride Month at Zwift and actively support our LGBTQIA+ community – both in the game and on our teams.
“We are committed to promoting Zwift as an inclusive and welcoming environment. We’ve begun the work internally to educate our employees on important issues impacting the LGBTQIA+ community and have recently launched our first LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group. Our in-game Pride On events will run year-round providing ample opportunity to wear that fantastic kit with Pride!”
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