THOUGHT LEADERS
Jessica Ennis shows off her Olympic gold medal to London crowds during TeamGB’s victory parade
2012 GAMES ONLY MID-POINT OF 12-YEAR PLAN JOHN GOODBODY
T
he legacy from the London Olym- pics and Paralympics is taking many forms. Not the least sig-
nificant will be Britain’s reputation for hosting successful international sports events, already enviable before the Games, but now probably the high- est it has ever been. For UK Sport, the quango funded with public money, the Games were the mid-point of its 12 year plan of investment in world and European Championships, with the newest tranche of £27m for the ‘decade of sport’ being announced in Novem- ber to help stage what it is terming ‘The Gold Events Series’. Simon Morton, the director of Major
Events and International Relations at UK Sport, says: ”In the six-year build-up to London, we funded 118 world and Eu- ropean events with £21m. This included competitions such as the Track Cycling World Cup, the Diving World Series and several Olympic test events, which also helped competitors and officials prepare for the Games themselves. “Now the emphasis is on fewer but
bigger events. The public has been en- thused by seeing Olympic sport and so should be excited at coming to these future competitions.” They include: the 2013 World Triath-
lon Championships Grand Final, with Alistair Brownlee racing on the Hyde Park circuit where he took the Olympic
title in August – with his brother Jonny in third place; the 2015 World Gymnas- tics Championships in Glasgow and the 2015 European Hockey Championships at the Lee Valley Centre. Morton explained: ”Engaging people
with sport is one of our objectives but there are also performance benefits for Britons for some of the competitions ,which we are supporting and will be acting for qualification for Rio in 2016.
UK Sport is putting 14 distinctive support
programmes into action to help NGBs in Britain
“In addition, there are economic
benefits with visitors bringing in an estimated total of £250m-300m over the next six years. “Many of these events had already
been allocated to Britain even before the Olympics but, because of the success of London 2012, the International Fed- erations have been blown away by the enthusiasm of the British public and the smooth running of the events.” Morton explained that there were 14
distinctive support programmes that UK Sport was putting into action to help
8 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital
national governing bodies in Britain. These included feasibility studies, knowledge transfer and a bidding sup- port service. Probably the most prestigious event it
will be helping will be the World Athlet- ics Championships, which will be staged in the Olympic Stadium in 2017. How- ever, there are still worries about the long-term use of the venue, the most favoured scenario being a combination of West Ham using the stadium during the winter and the track available for 20 days of athletics during the summer. Negotiations are going on between
the Premiership club and the London Legacy Development Corporation but it is feared that a reshaped 60,000 seat venue will not be opening until 2016, two years later than originally planned. There are also concerns about where
the money will come from for installing retractable seating. It is only a pity that this was not put in when the stadium was originally built, but West Ham, then under different management, did not commit to that scenario and the Olympic organisers had an immovable deadline. There are certainly problems ahead if this issue is to be resolved. John Goodbody has covered 12 successive Olympic Games for the Sunday Times @thesundaytimes
Issue 4 2012 © cybertrek 2012
PIC: DAVID DAVIES/AFP/GETTYIMAGES
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84