Looking forward to a decade of great sport
A month today may mark the end of the Olympics, but thanks to the experience and expertise gained in bidding for the Games, the UK now has many more major sporting events to look forward to.
As well as the Paralympics immediately after the Olympics, Britain will host the Champions League Final and Rugby League World Cup in 2013, the Commonwealth Games in 2014, the Rugby Union World Cup in 2015, the World Athletics Championships in 2017 and the Cricket World Cup in 2019.
Under the World Class Events programme led by UK Sport, the UK has already staged 118 sporting events in the five years leading up to the Games, bringing a £105 million boost to the UK economy – and laying the foundations for many more exciting sporting moments on UK soil in the years ahead.
Peter Paine sport centre comes of age in Lincolnshire
A dilapidated sports centre in Lincolnshire has been revived thanks to an injection of Olympic legacy funding. Boston College secured £100,000 from Inspired Facilities, to provide a new dance studio, gym and changing rooms at the Peter Paine Sports Centre.
The project will help increase sporting opportunities for both the community and students. “The Peter Paine Centre is a valuable asset to Boston town, but has sadly become a rundown building, said Boston College’s Janet Hemmant. “We are able to renew the facilities for the benefit of Boston College Learners and the Community.”
The Inspired Facilities fund is part of the £135 million Places People Play legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country.
Youngsters hit the water in Buckinghamshire
As Team GB rowers prepare to go for gold at Eton Dorney, a few miles away in Marlow a community rowing club are already celebrating after winning a Olympic-inspired legacy award. Rowing in 2012 worked with local schools, colleges, young offender institutions and disability support groups, to provide young people with six weeks of rowing coaching. It’s recently been named as a Sportivate project of the year.
Rebecca McGowan, one of the first young people to take advantage of the courses at Longridge, said: “I’d never really thought about rowing before I saw the Sportivate courses advertised at school and thought I would give it a try as I’d been thinking I should do more sport.”
The project forms part of a Sport England campaign to get more 14- to 25-year-olds playing sport. Thousands of youngsters across the South East have already benefited from a range of Sportivate courses offering a taste of different sports.
Making space to dream
Whether it’s shooting hoops on a basketball court or rehearsing in a church hall, young people across the country are getting the space they need to fulfil their dreams, thanks to a London 2012 legacy programme.
Delivered by youth communications agency Livity and Channel 4 Education, the “Somewhereto” project is giving 16 to 25 year olds the support they need to do the things they love in spaces they did not know existed.
One of those helped was Georgia from the Coruscate Theatre who needed a place to rehearse her play ‘Fern and Rose.’ She said: “Finding rehearsal spaces in a city centre can be a nightmare. Having regular rehearsal space has inspired me to produce more innovative work and collaborate with emerging artists.”
Further information is available on the somewhereto.com website.
