The Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012 are generally accepted to have been a great success as a sporting event.
However, the original pitch to the International Olympic Committee was that not only would the events be well organised, there would also be a “lasting legacy” of increased participation in sport and physical activity across the country. As a result of investing over £9 billion the nation would be more physically active and, hence, healthier.
That legacy doesn’t appear to have been delivered with the blue sky promises running into the realities of financial pressures and an aging population. Sport England’s latest Active People survey ( http://www.sportengland.org/media/913623/aps9q2headlines.pdf) shows that after an initial increase sporting participation in on the decline and that people on lower incomes have the lowest level of participation.
A series of articles by the excellent Guardian journalist David Conn put the national picture into stark relief and challenge the powers that be to make “Sport for All” a reality rather than the current “sport for those who can afford to pay”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/15/britain-olympic-legacy-london-2012
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/05/olympic-legacy-failure-sports-centres-council-cuts
A deafening silence in the recent budget about anything to do with sport and health would indicate that this is not a priority for government in 2015.
Lord Coe has not commented publicly
