The 2012 Olympic games will go down in history as the occasion when sporting achievement captured the hearts and minds of the majority of the British people to an extent that some of the sceptical and indifferent became caught up in the fever generated first by the extended Torch relay when tens of thousands crowded the streets as 8000 bearers, some famous, some local heroes and each with their own story built up expectation paraded before them.
However it will be a mistake to assume the good feelings and happy faces on everyone about the streets of London will continue after the Paralympics from August 29th to September 9th has concluded and as the excellent Victoria Derbyshire of BBC channel 5 live has already said travel on the London Underground is back to normal. But has something more fundamental and lasting also happened?
I do believe there is a new sense of national identity which will have an impact on the move of the Scottish Nationalists to separate Scotland from the rest of the UK in the referendum planned for later in this Parliament. There was a pride in competing and supporting Team GB which will not so easily be undone.
There was also an interesting crowd reaction yesterday, Sunday 19th August after Kevin Pietersen lost his place in the Test side for slagging off his captain and other players in tweets to members of the South African team and came out to play against his former club Hants on behalf of Surrey. There was a good crowd with entrance free and the extent of booing was transmitted over the BBC broadcast together with communal elation when he was bowled first ball. Instead of some sympathy he was roundly booed on his way back to the pavilion. Whereas hundreds of thousands turned out in all weathers to watch the Torch relay, road race or marathon event because it was free to support Team GB the stadium in Hampshire was reported just over half full despite the free admission an experience which Durham also experienced when it provided two free days of County cricket in the year when they swept to championship success and membership and support, especially for the shorter game did not expand as a consequence. The Football season also opened this weekend to packed stadium demonstrating once again that the public will exercise their ability to choose what to watch, what to pay for and what to stay away from. The emptiness of Trent Bridge the home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, already participating in the 20 20 finals next week and who would have continued to challenge for the County Championship if they had beaten Durham had no evident impact on the numbers of members attending the game which I attended on three of its four days, noting the thousands of Nottingham Forest Football Fans about the streets two hours and more before the kick off at the adjacent stadium. Hampshire who have the opportunity now to win three titles, the 20 20, the 40 40 and promotion from the second to first divisions could not give tickets away.
My impression is that the unity and pride experienced by the public in general will have an impact on political decisions and on the public response to political matters and decisions in the future. However while politicians will attempt to claim ownership the force that has been created is just as likely to be turned against the establishment and to support it.
The legacy of the Olympic Games will also be the extent to which they have “Inspired a Generation” to participate in sport in some way in general and the immediate response has been a surge in people making enquiries with clubs, with the number of cyclists on the roads and pressure on Ministers to direct schools to devote more attention to sport and stop the selling off of playing fields. It is a fact that about half recent Olympians have come from private schools and this suggests that the opportunity to try out some sports rowing, sailing, using horses, shooting depends of the social background and wealth of parents. An attempt is to be made to change this position over time by involving sporting clubs more with state schools but this will cost.
There has been some comment that a different balance between the basics of education, the reading , the writing and the arithmetic, the traditional subjects for further education, the Arts and the Sciences needs to be achieved with more emphasis on sport yet we have just seen a move away from the number of degree courses in subjects such as journalism, photography, popular music study and such like because of the inability to provide graduates with appropriate work in order to pay the £30000 loans which the study will have generated. Success during further education involves membership of societies and travel as well as forging links with those who can provide Internships and a lifetime of social influence and support.
While it will be good for the nation(s) to continue to find the talent to become successful International athletes in a widening variety of sports there is a gigantic gulf between the majority who participate and those with ability, especially mental ability to undertake the work required to become an International Athlete over a four to twenty year period which success at the Olympic Games requires. It was possible for one young woman to enter a competitive rowing boat four years ago and become an Olympic Champion but the cost was still over £1 million, most of which will be spent on the array of specialists now required to hone sporting techniques and the physical, mental and emotional body to its peak. The cost of a medal varied between over a million and several and this fact will govern how the Government commitment to maintain its present level of funding inflation proofed together with the National Lottery provided 25% of its good cause’s money through to the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
At the press conference at the conclusion of the games a journalist from mainland China asked Lord Coe about the balance in expenditure between that on the elite and the general public and Lord Coe is likely to have surprised and disappointed the questioner with his response that only successful elite athletes can generate a general public participation in sport especially in the era of the social media, the electronic generated games and the music bars and clubs. It is important to separate the general public enthusiasm for the Olympic Games and which will flow through to the Paralympic games and active participation in sports.
I have already commented on the significance difference between the tens of thousands who usually attend Premiership football and International Cricket from those who went to St James Park and Wembley to support teams other than the home countries. The level of expenditure was about the same in terms of the ticket price, travel and concession pricing or programmes, souvenirs food and drink. It was however evident that the yob element, the excessive drinking and the aggressive edge was absent, on and off the field of play. I make a distinction between elite competitiveness and the gamesmanship i.e. the cheating which is evident throughout professional sport. There was competitiveness in the way the cycling teams enabled someone other than GB World sprint champion Mark Cavendish win the cycling road race and Ben Kinsley gave as good as he got when his closest rival engaged him in a questionable sporting manner.
I listened to a prearranged debate on legacy issues hosted by Victoria Derbyshire of Five Live in which the future use of a number of stadiums created at Straford was mentioned. The swimming stadium will be changed to reduce two spectator wings but the two pools, one above the other will be used for elite swimmers, for those who want the experience and for members of the local community. The charging system will be variable with for local residents the usual concessions including those who are unemployed and disabled.
The Olympic Park site covers a large area which includes several rivers creating an island which was of value in terms of making the site secure. The 400 outlet Westfield centre has been created between the existing Stratford Transport Interchange and the Olympic Park and was packed when I visited several months before the games commenced and therefore is likely to continue as a profitable enterprise. The Swimming and Water Polo stadiums are either side of the main entrance with the Water Polo centre being demolished. The Orbit will reopen tot he public once the other work on the site has been completed. The main stadium will be used for the World Athletic championships in two years time and in the intervening period decisions will be taken about its use as a Football Stadium, with West Ham the most likely beneficiaries with Spurs the other interest party now looking to move to a site south of the River at Battersea.
The other facility which will continue as mentioned in my last writing (2330) the Copper box will become a small to medium multi use facility for indoor sports. The outdoor stadium for Hockey is already being transformed for Paraplegic Football and will then become an open space without spectator facilities. The Basketball arena will also be demolished although an attempt was made to transport to Brazil. Given its demountable nature it would be surprising if some use elsewhere is not created. I have explained that in London there is the ginormous Excel centre close to the O2 arena where International Tennis is held as well as rock concerts in East London with Wembley Arena in the north west and the Earls Court and Olympia centre in the South west of the city.
The cycling velodrome is to continue along with the national centre at Manchester and the Chris Hoy centre in Glasgow. There will be additional work round the Olympic Park Velodrome and the BMX track to enable some road racing. There are questions about the future of the Crystal Palace athletics track and stadium in south London and the open air Herne Hill velodrome also in south London and which provided the only opportunity for young people to experience a competitive track in in the capital. I have no information on what is to happen to the other buildings on the park, the London 2012 megastore, the Coca Cola Beat Box the Panasonic HD 3D Theatre and the MacDonald’s 4 storey 15000 seating food outlet as well as the other food and drink outlets. There is to be additional housing created to the proposed use of the Olympic Village accommodation which is to be divided between different levels of property in terms of renting and purchasing.
Because of the nationalistic fervour, the overall cost of holding the event as well as the cost and availability of tickets together with the issues surrounding sponsorship it is possible to lose sight that the Olympics is an international sporting event based on the principal of giving ones best and that the honour of participation should be as great as the honour of winning. Of course the Games is always marred by the cheats who use banned substances to enhance performance and although testing has become as sophisticated as new and this year there was the extraordinary spectacle of several Badminton female doubles players desperately trying to lose their games in order to avoid playing the best competitors in the next round. They and their coaches were sent home in disgrace.
There is in my view too much attention paid to the medals winning table although it is encouraging that 120 of the 204 nations competing did not win one medal and I shared in the excitement of when a nation achieved a medal for the first time or some athlete unexpectedly came to the fore. The Olympic Committee tries to limit the involvement of politics and the original intention was that holding of the games would stop conflicts at least for their duration but in 2012 the killing and the destruction continued in Syria despite a team from the country participating. The way countries use the Games for International and National political purposes has been evidence since Hitler planned the 1936 Berlin Olympics to promote his brand of Racial Fascism. Post the Second World War the main political battle was between the night of the Soviets and the USA and since the break up of the Soviet Union a more healthy competitiveness has emerged between China and the USA with China winning in Beijing 2008 and the USA in London. The People’s Republic of China gained 88 medals (39 Gold 27 Silver and 23 Bronze) in London with the USA gaining 104 (46 29 29). The ability of a state to spend and to influence according to its wealth is to some extent countered by its size and China can be expected to dominate the next century irrespective of what the USA is willing to do. Future medal tables should be weighted according to population and per capita wealth.
For several decades Russia remained third in the table with Australia in particular dominant and the UK among the also rans sometimes badly when at one Games only one Gold Medal was achieved. The situation was changed in Beijing as part of the preparations for London 2012 and in some respects because of the unexpected success of those games, especially in the number of Gold Medals (18) there was uncertainty about what was to happen this time with the target set at 19 and above Golds with 29 being achieved, and over 60 medals overall with the total 65 and some disappointment in this respect with the swimmers gaining less than expected as did the field and track athletes overall despite the double gold of Mohammed (Mo) Farah and that of Jessica Ennis and the long distance jumper Greg Rutherford.
The number of Gold medals achieved means that in the official table the GB team is placed third over Russia with 82 medals in total but only 24 Golds. In fact only 84 of the 204 countries participating gained a medal seven nations achieve 10 or more Golden medals
Germany was 6th with 44 medals (11 gold 19 silver ,14 bronze) with South Korea 5th having achieved more Golds with 13 but gained only 28 medals. In total France with 11 Golds and 34 medals was 7th..
Significantly Canada is placed 36th with only 1 Gold but with 18 medals in total. Similarly Australia 10th 7 Golds 35 medals and Japan 11 also 7 Golds and 38 medals but two fewer Silver. Other countries gaining ten or more medals are Italy 20 (8 Golds), Netherlands 20 (6), Ukraine 20 (6), Hungary 17 (8), Spain 17 (3), Cuba 14 (5). Kazakhstan 13 (7), New Zealand 13 (6), Islam Republic of Iran 12 (4) Jamaica 12 (4), Belarus 12 (2), Kenya 11 (2), Czech Republic 10(4), Poland 10(2), and Azerbaijan 10 (2). Brazil the hosts in 2016 gained only three Golds out of a total of 17.
Because of the success in terms of Gold and other medals and the impact upon the public in general the government has committed the national funding with the ongoing National Lottery funding the elite athletes will have an overall inflation proofed level of funding. How the money will be divided is to be reviewed so cycling will gain and swimming lose together with the team sports such a handball and basketball. There is the political expectation more than a national one that Team GB will perform as well or better in Brazil in four years time as it did in China and now in London. For David Cameron, the Prime Minister the games has provided proof that the Big Society can become a reality given the extent of volunteering that was involved and which proved such a success together with the way the public responded. Any hope that he and the beleaguered Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has that the Games will re-ignite their political fortunes is misguided and this was underlined that backbench Tory Members of Parliament are to test his leadership again on issues such planning, train fares, energy and petrol prices. When Parliament returns, the publication of the Iraq inquiry report and that from Lord Leveson everything will revert to party political reality. The unknown factoring in this is the health of the Duke of Edinburgh.
But the glow of success remains and in the final piece of this series I want to look again at my golden moments and at those who made them
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