A Bid for Sportsmanship

The continued progress of the Olympic torch through town and city brings the nation closer to the start of the games and the global spectacle that will take place in London this summer. The games themselves have the potential to promote unity, inspire, excite and improve the economy..... well, in London at least.

It’s true that there are a small handful of other locations elsewhere in the country that will be used for various gaming events and these locations will no doubt benefit both economically and educationally. However, there are’nt many of these extra sites, the majority of events will take place in and around London and the South East. It’s not that I object to any towns or cities benefiting, but what I do have concerns about is the fact that we, the tax payer, were told that the entire nation would benefit economically, educationally and culturally. Given the billions of pounds that the event is costing us, at a time of so called austerity, it is well worth us asking how exactly the rest of the nation is going to benefit from such heavy investment.

It was this question that I pondered recently while attending a meeting with the head teacher of a school where I sit on the board of governors. During the meeting I asked the Head what directive had been given by the government to schools for promoting the Games and using them as an education tool to benefit the pupils. His response was “None”! This rather shocked and disappointed me especially as the Olympic Games in one’s own nation is a once in a lifetime kind of event and the idea of hosting the Games had been sold to the country as an amazing opportunity to inspire and promote sporting culture among our young people. In fact to quote Seb Coe, Chair of the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games:

“London’s vision is to reach young people all around the world, to connect them with the inspirational power of the Games, so that they are inspired to choose sport”.

Clearly this “vision” is either not shared by government, or Seb Coe’s statement is a tokenistic sound bite used to aid those with other agendas.  In my view schools are the obvious choice as a vehicle for promoting and encouraging sporting culture among young people and yet the fact that such an obvious opportunity for inspiring our young people to choose sport has been overlooked or ignored, demonstrates that the true purpose of the games is not the promotion of sport but rather the opportunity for a small handful of individuals to make money. Despite this, my sentiment is that the nation as a whole gets a sporting chance to benefit from the Games if not economically, at least from the entertainment and excitement of watching our athletes perform to their full potential.

Just one more thing..........There has been a lot of talk this past week about news papers, government, double standards and corruption with not only the continuation of the Leveson enquiry, but also the government stance on the BSkyB deal currently under scrutiny in the House of Commons. One may think that not only has the weather barometer been pointing towards rain, but also the moral barometer too. Maybe some things do come in pairs!