Last week’s hotly-contested BBC Sports Personality of the Year award showed just what an amazing year it has been for sport. Our record Olympic and Paralympic medal haul, sporting triumph in the Champions League Final, the Tour de France, the Ryder Cup and, most recently, the Test series in India...the list is almost endless. Locally we also celebrated Swindon Town’s promotion, a visit to Wembley and Swindon Robins being crowned the Speedway champions!
Behind such successes in elite sport lie enormous efforts to drive up grassroots participation, and these efforts have paid off. Since 2005, the number of people doing sport each week has risen by 2.3 million. There are now nearly 20 million adults participating in sport each week, up 900,000 on last year - a clear indication of the ‘Olympic Effect’. Not only is this good news for our leisure centres and amateur clubs, it is also good news for society as a whole. After all, active people are healthy people.
Given the long list of health benefits of regular sport, I think it is particularly important to encourage sport amongst young people. This country faces an increasing challenge from childhood obesity and, alongside healthy eating, sport has a pivotal role to play in tackling it.
I regularly visit our schools in Swindon and in the primary schools the enthusiasm for sport is universal and overwhelming, yet by the time children get into secondary school, some of this enthusiasm seems to wane. This is a trend supported by sport participation statistics. These show that it is the 14-25 age group that is the hardest to keep interested in sport.
I therefore welcome this week’s announcement by Sport England – funded by the Government – of a £493 million investment over four years in grassroots sport. At least 60 per cent of the total sum will be spent supporting young people aged between 14 and 25, working to keep them active and interested in sport. There will also be a further £83 million to support the development of talented young athletes in 43 sports. With Swindon producing young Olympians in 2012, I will continue to work with a number of local sports groups to access this funding so that we give our Town’s talented young athletes the chance to fly the flag in 2016 and beyond.
None of this would be possible without the dedication of our sports volunteers, whether they are washing kit or organising fixtures. We need more champions like these so that we can continue to boost participation in our local clubs and teams, and I am working with the Sports Forum and Volunteer Centre Swindon to help find them.
Finally, a very Merry Christmas to all!
