Government broke promise to make Britain fitter after 2012 Olympics, says report | Olympic games

It should “inspire a generation” and leave a legacy of a healthier, more active population. But promises that the London 2012 Olympics would boost sporting participation have not been kept, according to a new parliamentary report.

An enduring legacy of participation was a key part of the government’s £8.8 billion pitch for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, including a pledge to increase the number of adults taking part in sporting activities. However, the all-party Audit Committee found that the promised benefits had not materialized as the percentage of adults exercising at least once a week actually declined in the first three years after the Games.

It also accused Sport England, the body tasked with boosting attendance, of not knowing what two-thirds of the £1.5bn is going for.

The government changed course in 2015, focusing on local approaches to increasing participation and targeting the least active. It was in fact an admission that it had relied too heavily on the Games to drive higher attendance rates. However, the committee concluded that the change of course had still not resulted in a significant increase in national participation rates.

In one of its most worrying findings, it says that of £1.5billion in grants Sport England has distributed since 2016, the body only knows where £450million of that has gone – while the share of active adults from 2016 is up by just 1.2 percentage points in 2019.

The committee concluded that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – as well as Sport England – had made “little progress” in tackling inequalities and barriers to participation, despite spending £323m a year since 2015.

Almost two in five adults in England do not meet the chief medical officer’s guidelines for recommended activities, it said. These state that adults should engage in at least two and a half hours of “moderate-intensity activity” such as walking or cycling, or 75 minutes of “high-intensity activity” such as running, each week.

Meg Hillier, Labor leader of the committee, who is also an MP in East London Borough of Hackney, blamed a “lack of vision and drive”. “After the short-term financial rebound, there was very little legacy, even in my immediate area of ​​East London where the 2012 Games were held,” she said.

Sport England fought back against the report, arguing that activity levels were “at record highs” before the pandemic. She said she knows which organizations have spent their grant money and on what, and works with them to understand the geographic distribution of the funds.

A spokesperson said: “Our annual Active Lives data recently confirmed that despite the tremendous disruption over the past two years, participation in sports and activity continues to recover, with children’s activity levels already returning to pre-pandemic levels.”

A Government spokesman said: “Activity levels for young people have now returned to pre-pandemic levels and we continue to work with Sport England to invest in sport for all, having recently raised £320million for schools and more than Thousands of base facilities have announced £260m to build or upgrade.

“We will be releasing a new sports strategy shortly, outlining our commitment to continue increasing activity rates and responding to the committee’s report in due course.”