Announces Professor Greg Whyte OBE and Chrissie Wellington MBE as new brand ambassadors
Fitbit, tech provider in the connected health and fitness category, has announced sports scientist Professor Greg Whyte and athlete Chrissie Wellington MBE as its two new brand ambassadors. Whyte and Wellington will help Fitbit continue its mission to get more people moving across the UK, providing the motivation needed to help people achieve their health and fitness goals.
An Olympian, ‘physical activity expert’ and world-renowned sports scientist, Greg is a global authority on exercise physiology, sports performance and rehabilitation, which includes having extensive professional experience assessing, treating and improving the performance of athletes and sporting enthusiasts.
He has published over 200 peer reviewed papers and eight books in the area of sport and exercise science and medicine. He is also well-known for his involvement in Comic Relief and has trained, motivated and successfully coached celebrities including Davina McCall, Eddie izzard and David Walliams for a number or remarkable endurance challenges.
Whyte said: “As a sports scientist, finding ways to improve and enhance performance is at the core of what I do, and this is why the Fitbit activity trackers are of great interest to me.” He continued: “Heart rate is an important indicator of health and fitness levels, workout intensity and all-day calorie burn. The PurePulse function on devices such as the Fitbit Charge HR and Surge helps users to understand how to push themselves while training, but also gives them a fuller picture of their health, 24/7, as they track resting heart rate over time.”
Wellington is a former professional triathlete and four-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion, and also holds the World Record for ironman distance triathlon. She retired in 2012, and was undefeated at ironman distance, having won thirteen ironman titles from thirteen races. Additionally, she is the only triathlete, male or female, to have won the World Championship less than a year after turning professional.
Since retiring from professional sport, Chrissie has focused her efforts on widening participation in sport and physical activity, and inspiring people to lead healthy lifestyles. As head of participation for parkrun, an organisation which holds free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world, she led the development of the new junior parkrun series of events, as well as being a member of the parkrun Research Board. She is passionate about driving forward change in women and sport, and last year helped to organise a successful campaign to get a women’s race at the Tour de France.
Wellington said: “When training for a sporting event or race, knowing your own health data can play a key role in helping to improve your performance and be the best that you can be.”
She continued: “I’m really excited to be working with Fitbit whose mission is to give people a deeper understanding of their own activity levels and performance, and empower everyone to lead healthier active lifestyles.”
Following the global availability of the latest additions to the Fitbit line – Fitbit Charge, Charge H and Surge activity trackers – Fitbit is making it even easier to achieve health and fitness goals by introducing new automated and smart features like continuous heart rate on the wrist, integrated GPS, multi-device support, as well as improved food logging for all Fitbit users and additional types of fun Fitbit Challenges and added mobile features.
Gareth Jones, vice president and general manager at Fitbit Europe, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with ambassadors like Greg and Chrissie who, through hard work and dedicated training, have achieved so much.
“Our new range of Fitbit products are designed to provide motivation and encouragement for those who, just like Greg and Chrissie, are dedicated to taking fitness to the next level. Fitbit’s new features, such as continuous heart rate and GPS tracking, can really help you to train smarter and go further, allowing you to reach your peak performance goals,” Jones concluded.
