London 2012 Legacy A Failure - BOA Chairman
British Olympic Association (BOA) Chairman Colin Moynihan said a "great deal of work" is still needed to be done since Britain's drive to increase sports participation as a legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games is shaping up as a failure.
London was awarded the 2012 Games in 2005, and bid leaders promised to increase the number of people playing sports in Britain by more than one million by 2013. But recent figures show that 21 of 30 selected sports have had a decrease in the number of participants since 2007.
Moynihan told the BBC, "the reason the BOA looked to bid to host these Games originally was in part because it would lead to a step change in sport throughout the whole country - not just in east London but the whole country. We are a long way from delivering that step change".
Former Sports Minister Richard Caborn said, "the Olympics will be a spectacular success but we are not capitalizing on that. We are in danger of failing completely on the long-term sporting legacy of the Games. There needs to be a major change of direction in the strategy on this if the disastrous decline experienced by many of the sports is to be reversed".
Sport England chairman Richard Lewis said the British government has written to all sports governing bodies "with the clear message that they must deliver participation growth or put their public funding at risk".
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