It’s been over a year since the success of the Olympic games in London. During the Opening ceremony it became known what our legacy of the games would be, to support the future generations in their careers, increase our tourism and primarily to develop elite athletes as well as encourage participation in sports by creating a wider range of sports that the youth can get involved in. They all sound fantastic ideas however after a year, have we really seen any of these points implemented at grassroots levels? Or will it flop and fade away like other young sports initiatives in Britain?
Let us debate this by talking about each point of the legacy one by one, starting off with the future generations career options and opportunities. In the legacy doctrine, it explains what they aim to do regarding careers for the future, while the actual doctrine is full of big words to fill up paragraphs and pointless explanations let me cut it down for you, when the doctrine was written up they decided what they aimed for careers would not so much be new jobs are made, but more opportunities for current jobs are made available. This would mean that national organisations like the BBC, ITV and all those sort of places are putting their money where their mouths are and are getting behind the Olympic legacy, looking to move the country forward. During the build up to the Olympics, it was a worry for the committee whether the big organisations like ITV and BBC would be able to help with the legacy, or more so, would they be willing. With the fear of costs and having to spend more on creating opportunities, it was decided that the big TV stations, Radio stations, Newspapers and other organisations which were key in Britain would open up apprenticeships, Internships and other young career opportunities to train them ,in key skills. However we are not arguing whether they were on board at the start or not, we are trying to decide whether or not it has been put into action! I am glad to reveal however that these organisations have come through on their promises with the BBC and the ITV leading the way by opening up hundreds of apprenticeships, more than any of the other companies involved with the careers side of the legacy. So we are off to a good start on the Olympic legacy with one of the 3 points being implemented and completed.
Next stop Tourism! Now it is no question that during the Olympics our tourism had rocketed up, reaching it’s highest amount of Tourists since 2008 while also managing to receiving the highest amount on income from tourism since 2002, this amount of income was even enough to improve the country's economic state in total, taking us just out of recession according the economist magazine. However we are not saying that it wasn’t there the tourism from 2012, but that is not the legacies aim, it is aiming to keep these amount of tourism coming in for the next 5 years in a bid to improve the nation's economy. However it hasn’t been plain sailing for the tourism side of the Legacy, while some officials will tell you that it has been successful but not in a steady way, for instance Jeremy Hunt, declared that the Olympics were a very good time for tourism, however it came in short bursts and not a consistent period as predicted, however companies involved in Britain for instance McDonalds or other widespread businesses have come out explaining how business was barely an improvement from the usual, with west end theatres claiming only a 5% increase in income during that period when they had been promised a predicted increase of 20%, thats quite big difference especially when you expect the professional economists to get it right! To make it worse, the tourism from 2012 to 2013 which has been declared as the improvements from the Olympics hasn’t even spread further into the country, it has all been condensed into London and the surrounding area, meaning that the Tourist side of the legacy has been a monumental flop! 1 success and 1 failure.
Can the development in sport save the Olympic legacy? Unfortunately it doesn't look good from the start, for those who don’t keep their eyes on politics, the current Conservative government is cutting the budgets for multiple departments in the country and bad news sports fans but one of those departments included our sports initiatives. However this doesn’t mean they no longer have a budget and the government has promised to come through on giving a sufficient budget for the initiatives, which in all fairness they have managed to fund the FA, RFU, BBA, ECB and many of the other organisations, which means that the boards will be spending the money given to them on funding these movements to make sure we receive the next batch of elite sportsmen to improve our success in their respective sports right? Wrong, it turns out that out of the 8 bodies given funding towards a grassroots level nurturing program only two have actually used that funding, the first being the RFU, the Rugby board have seen the opportunity given to them, and with Rugby returning to the Olympic sports, will want to start bringing improved players to the England fold especially with the arguably weak batch with are their current youth sides, and the second board is the BBA, the British Basketball Association has been throwing their money straight into getting youngsters involved trying to create more Basketball stars to ship off to America, however in an ironic twist of fate, it may not matter if team GB doesn’t perform well at the next Eurobasket competition, with an ultimatum to show improvements or they cut the fund. So why no movement in the FA or the ECB?
Well if I can back up the ECB here, they are arguably England's biggest success right now, with an already successful national side which is always in contention to win any competition they win, they don’t seem to need improvement and with youngsters like Root starting to earn himself a cemented place in the lineup as well as other youngsters, you could argue they don’t have to look for more youngsters especially with how many there already are which could play in the squad. However the FA do not have the luxury of bringing up recent successes or being able to show off a bright young squad which can stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the worlds, especially with the Under 21’s horrific display at the Under 21’s Euro this year in Israel, it is looking desperate for some young stars to come through, and if the FA don’t find it soon they may risk losing their cushiony budget, which may I add is the largest of all the other boards, and have to show improvements before earning it back just like the BBA. So has their been any success in terms of young stars being created? Well it isn’t doom and gloom and old sports stars who need to quit, there is success in Hockey, both Ice hockey, which received no funding and is an independent board from the government funding, and field. Field hockey had a great display at the olympics with a fairly young squad with what appears the perfect mix of experience and youth it is growing and could be a source of success in the years to come. While the Ice Hockey side is currently struggling to perform, the talent is there and, like the field hockey side, is the right mix of youth and experience and if they keep improving under Doug Christiansen might be a big team in the future.
I conclusion however it is clear to all that the legacy hasn’t come through on it’s promises and ideas and this could be down to funding but I truly feel it needs to be regulated more, get the boards involved in grassroots sports. Make them use a percentage of their funding on young talent, make sure there's something there in the youth ranks, Nurture their talent, don’t just throw any youngster into the first team, and then when they are ready give them their shot in the side, and you never know maybe in 10 years time, we might just be a decent side once more, if we work hard at it.
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