SPORTS ANALYSIS
John Goodbody reports on
The promises of Olympic Legacy
egacy, always a contentiously
L
amorphous feature of the Lon-
don Olympics, has once again
been in the news. This certainly
will not be the last time that politicians
and sports officials have clashed over
this imprecise concept, which is often in-
terpreted in the self-serving interests of
particular lobbies or individuals.
The latest flurry of controversy was
sparked by Andy Hunt, the newly-ap-
pointed chief executive of the British
Olympic Association, saying the
promises of legacy from the Games
might be unfulfilled.
He focused on two areas of con-
cern: to what extent the facilities in the
What we need is a sharing of ideas, so that if something
Olympic Park would be able to stage
major competitions after the Games
works well in Plymouth, then Preston get to hear about it
and whether the participation levels
at grassroots would be as high as the Hunt was equally critical, in an inter- Certainly the situation in schools
government wants. Hunt said: ”There view with the Daily Telegraph, on the seems better. Olympics Minister Tessa
are good individual initiatives but noth- legacy of participation, believing that Jowell claims that over the last seven
ing has been drawn together. Time is there is a lack of clear policy and also years, the percentage of children play-
running out to get this right.” Hunt is questioning whether to get two million ing two hours of sport a week has risen
worried that after 2012 the venues may more people physically active was feasi- from 23 percent to more than 90 per-
not be used for sport and that the op- ble, even if only one million will actually cent and a recent survey conducted by
portunities for elite competition will be be doing a sport at least three times Loughborough University was gener-
restricted, because other interested par- a week. He accepted that there were ally positive, although it still pointed to
ties, such as education, will get priority. some good initiatives but added: “We areas of concern. One was to close the
Although the aquatic complex, which need a policy that clearly sets out and gap between secondary school girls and
provides London with its third and underpins the agenda.” boys in both extra-curricular PE/sport ac-
fourth 50m indoor pools, seems assured His views were buttressed by the recent tivities and in inter-school competition.
of being able to stage elite training and quarterly figures from Sport England, The other was to raise the mean num-
competition, the situation over the main when it was shown that of the 31 sports ber of girls and boys in primary schools
stadium remains less certain. It has al- being assessed for regular participation, participating in competitive and rep-
ways been planned that the venue would only table tennis recorded an increase. resentative sport, which has remained
be reduced from its Olympic capacity Brigid Simmonds, who chairs the broadly stable since 2005.
of 80,000 to 25,000 for annual athletics Central Council of Physical Recreation, Despite initiatives such as free swim-
meetings, with the capability of going wants the best ideas to be dissemi- ming, there are still obstacles to meeting
up to about 45,000 if Britain were to nated. She says: ”What we really need the government and Sport England’s
host the World or European Champion- is a sharing of the best ideas, so that if participation target. To rectify this, the
ships. However, Hunt has joined those something works well in Plymouth, then government is planning to convene a new
who want it reduced to 50,000, although Preston gets to know about it. We’re team, overseen by a ‘legacy czar’, to en-
with football clubs, such as West Ham, not talking about schoolchildren or sure every avenue is explored. Critics will
reluctant to use a stadium surrounded by those involved in sport, we are talk- say that this should have been done three
an athletics track, one cannot see such an ing about people who aren’t doing any years ago and not with just three years to
arena being full very often. physical activity.” go before the Olympics open in London. ●
Issue 3 2009 © cybertrek 2009 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 7
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