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Thursday Mar 22, 2007
Olympic angst and opportunity
As the debate intensifies about the cost of the London 2012 Olympics, I'm finding it hard to decide if they're the 'biggest overselling scam in history' or the source of 'unparalleled new opportunities' for sport and regeneration.
From a voluntary sector point of view, there has been reassurance from Tessa Jowell that their budgets won't be raided to pay for the Games, but some organisations are still seeking reassurance about possible reductions in Lottery funding.
What's beyond doubt is that the Olympics present a fantastic opportunity to get more volunteers involved in sport. Thousands have already registered their interest at helping out during the Games, and there are ways to get involved right now.
But can there be a genuine culture shift in terms of volunteering and participation in sport? Volunteers are already running much of the sport in this country but could more be done? I walk past empty tennis courts every day near my home and often wonder what it would take to get kids kitted out and playing.
An article for the BBC by Joe Wilson looks at how Sweden has achieved its recent success in athletics, and finds volunteers at the heart of things.
*On a freezing Monday evening I visited the Satra athletics hall about 10km outside Stockholm. The wooden beams of this huge hangar still smell fresh five years after being built. No-one has vandalised it, it stays open in the snow and it is full. There are at least 300 participants, all apparently under 16, and a host of coaches. In one corner, a 16-year-old girl is whirling around with the hammer, watched proudly by a huge man with a grey moustache. He turns out to be former national champion Bjorn Holmstrom. Holmstrom is not being paid to be here, none of the coaches are. The Swedish athletics transformation has been shaped by amateur enthusiasm.*
There are around 600,000 sports volunteers in Sweden out of a population of nine million. And the government's investment in new facilities must be an encouragement to turn off the TV and do something less boring instead.
There are already several initiatives underway to boost sports volunteering, some of which YouthNet is involved in. If Britain can come close to emulating the Swedes in the next five years that will be one Olympic legacy everyone will be able to celebrate.
Posted by Tom Green ( 4:29 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]