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Comment: London's legacy stuck on starting blocks
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent24.07.08
For five years, the architects of the London Olympics have been claiming that the event has the power to turn Britain into a sporting nation.
But as the capital prepares to take the mantle of host city from Beijing in a few weeks, it is clear that the socalled "sports legacy" has become the Cinderella issue.
A big part of the problem is no one wants to take overall responsibility. Olympics chiefs are busy building the venues and making sure they satisfy the technical demands of the International Olympic Committee. Local councils have no statutory obligations and sports investment always finds itself at the bottom of their in-tray.
The Government dithered for a year before producing, a year late, its "legacy action plan" with the eyecatching pledge of free swimming for all children and pensioners. Major question marks hang over that scheme, not least the fact that many Londoners live too far away from their local public pool because so many have been sold off since the Seventies. It will be interesting to see how many are able to take up the offer.
Westminster's response to the legacy issue has not been helped by the revolving door at the department of Culture, Media and Sport, which has had three new bosses in a year. A "sports legacy czar" is sadly lacking. It should be the boss of Sport England - the quango responsible for funding grassroots and community sport - but its chairman, Derek Mapp, quit at Christmas complaining of ministerial meddling. The highly-rated Sir Keith Mills, a marketing tycoon and one of the architects of the bid, is stalling on taking the job for fear of being handed a poisoned chalice.
The Government's one quantifiable aim - to get two million more Britons involved in sport by 2012 - has had ministers tying themselves in knots. Does this target include recreational activity such as yoga or a country stroll, or is it just competitive sport, they have wondered. On an almost weekly basis there is another speech, policy paper or report saying the reality is far from the stated ambition in the Olympic bid.
The latest comes from the Public Accounts Committee - and the themes they raise are strikingly similar. There is no new money for facilities - a fact that will come into sharp focus next year, when local sports clubs will be refused lottery grants because the money has been diverted to help the 2012 building programme in the Olympic Park.
The number of hours dedicated on the curriculum to school sport is hotly debated. What we do know is that school playing fields have been sold off and teachers do not commit to extra-curricular coaching activities as they did a generation ago. Instead of a couple of hours of football after school, a schoolchild is more likely to go home and play on their computer. It is here that the claim that the London Olympics would help crack the obesity epidemic looks particularly hollow.
Three years ago Sebastian Coe stood in front of the International Olympic Committee in Singapore to say that the Games should come to London to prove sport's transformative powers to future generations. Coe may have been unfairly saddled with responsibility for this, but he will know that on current going, that claim looks likely to come back to haunt him. Time is running out.
Reader views (2)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Success in your Games of 2012.
You were sarcastic with Greek Olympics in 2004 for security issues that maybe you had forgotten that terrorism exists when someone provokes it (Colonies,right hand of USA). The criticism has already started from Beijing's closing ceremony with your umbrellas and the Bus.
You were critical for human rights and Tibet for China. From my perspective, judging Greece in 2004 and China in 2008 was not very smart way of covering your historical in existence.
Finally, with opening ceremonies with thousands years of history, because I want to see Beckhams wife!
Success my friends and all in all you can blow up the world and make the history again later from your perspective. Is the only way
- Hermes, Athens,Greece
hold the front page :
London is not Britain; its not even "England" in some people's eyes. Why should some vanity games in London turn Britain into a nation (sic) of sport playing inhabitants? 90% of the population will sit at home watching the damned thing and the rest of us will not have the money to pay for the inflated accommodation prices or the transport costs of getting there and about London.
Given that the whole premise of the sale of the land and housing post the Games was increasing land values that seems to have gone off the rails. The rest of the UK has and will have to pay for the losses incurred in an area already subsidised at a great rate per head of population in the UK other than Northern Ireland. before anyone refers to subsidy junkies Scotland's £9631 public money per head is still less than London's at £9748 or Northern Ireland's £10,271.source: Office of National Statistics (ONS). No wonder Red Ken changed his tune a year or so ago after his comment about London's money. The sector is not to take the average for England but check the individual English Regions figure and see how much London and the South East exceed the English average. who subsidises whom? Have a nice day!
- Ron Oliver, Edinburgh Scotland
