Responding to the BBC story regarding the reported drop in sports participation since London 2012, Emma Boggis, Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, said:
“It is of course disappointing that there has been a slight fall in the number of people recorded, through the last use of the Active People Survey, playing sport and being physically active at least once a week, since 2012 but it is important to remember the legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was always about much more than adult participation figures.
The ambition of the Games was to “Inspire a Generation” and many sports have seen an increase in the number of young people taking up their sport – figures which aren’t captured by the Active People Survey. The January data from the Taking Part survey for example reported that significantly more young adults (aged 16 to 44) who had taken part in sport or recreational physical activities felt that the UK hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games has motivated them to do more sport and recreational physical activities compared with older adults.
Moving forwards, the measure of success for future major events, and sport and physical activity in general, will not focus solely on participation but, as laid out in the Government’s Sporting Future strategy, it’s also about being able to demonstrate the benefits of sport to peoples physical and mental wellbeing, individual, social and community development, as well as the economic benefits sport brings to the UK through staging major events like the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
London 2012 certainly delivered those wider social and economic benefits, not only to London, but to the nation as a whole.
There is always more that can be done to encourage people to become physically active, and the Alliance will be working hard with its members to get the nation to do so. There has been great recent success in encouraging more women to become physically active, with female participation accounting for 75% of the increase in the latest Active People Survey and we want to transfer that success across to groups who still struggle to get active, including those from lower socio-economic groups, BAME and disability groups.
We look forward to helping our members and the wider sector drive and demonstrate this change to make sure that the legacy of sport and physical activity is demonstrated by delivering a healthy, active and prosperous nation.”
As 2024 concludes and as we look ahead to 2025, the Alliance has published a message to members and partners.
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Sport and Recreation Alliance responds to Active Lives Children and Young People report.
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