18 Aug 2023 - As Paris celebrated one year to go until the Olympic Games 2024, Sir Hugh Robertson – Chair of the British Olympic Association and Minister for the Olympics in 2012 – reflects on how organisers were able to ensure the Games delivered a lasting legacy for British sport.
The one-year-to-go milestone is a hugely significant moment for any Olympic Games. It’s a moment that really focuses the mind. And it’s a moment when you realise that this incredible event, which you’ve been working towards for so many years, is now suddenly very close indeed.
For those of us involved in London 2012, that final year was a blur of testing, testing and testing. We had to be absolutely sure that all the facilities we built worked, that we could move a million people into and out of the Olympic Park safely, and that the public transport links were going to work. We soon discovered that people left the stadia in different ways to how the computer simulations had planned for them to leave, because human beings are human beings and they work in different ways. But we only discovered that by testing.
One thing we couldn’t test was the long-term legacy that we hoped to create. There are no guarantees, but we didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
We were absolutely clear from a very early stage that we had to plan a legacy at the same time as we were planning the Games. The phrase we used was that legacy had to be built into every stage of Games-time planning, and we sought to define legacy in five key areas. There was the legacy for the economy, in terms of encouraging trade, inward investment and tourism, and the economic boost this would bring. There was the legacy in terms of regeneration, and what the Games meant for the area around Stratford. There was the legacy in terms of community, and how the Games could bring people together and inspire a generation. There was the legacy in terms of what hosting the Paralympics could do for promoting inclusivity and changing attitudes towards people living with disabilities. And then there was the sporting legacy, and what the Games could do for British sport.
It's incredible to go back to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park now and recall all those historic moments for Team GB. Looking at the Olympic Stadium, you can’t help but think of “Super Saturday”, which delivered perhaps the greatest night in the history of British athletics. Then there’s the Velodrome, which roared day after day with medal-winning performances for the host nation. And there’s the riverbank, where crowds gathered around giant screens to cheer as medals were won at venues throughout London and beyond.
There are other memories, too. Like how this was all once the largest industrial wasteland inside the M25 motorway. It’s hard to imagine now, when you see the families walking through the park, the bustling shopping centre, and the commuters rushing in and out of the station. But it is a fantastic example of how sport can be used to regenerate an area and how it can be integrated into people’s lives to their benefit.
Anybody who’s lucky enough to rent or own a flat in Stratford now has this wonderful green space on their doorstep. They can go cycling and running. There’s a swimming pool they can use. There’s a Premier League football stadium.
There are hockey pitches and tennis courts and all the facilities at the Copper Box. It’s been utterly transformational.
This is where the sporting legacy goes beyond the high-performance level. Obviously, we’re incredibly proud of those elite-level successes, particularly the fact that Great Britain won more medals at Rio 2016 than we did on home soil at London 2012. That’s never been done by a host nation before and is an extraordinary achievement. Great Britain’s reputation for hosting major sports events was also given a huge boost by London 2012, with the country subsequently staging a succession of major global and continental events in the decade since the Games.
But the sporting legacy goes beyond that. You also have the legacies to community and school sport. In preparing for London 2012, we ran a programme called “Places People Play”, which was the cornerstone of our grassroots legacy, helping more people of all ages and abilities to play sport. This included upgrading local sports clubs and facilities, investing in multisport facilities, and recruiting and training thousands of sports leaders to organise and lead grassroots sporting activities. All of this extended far beyond the new facilities that were built in the Olympic Park, which are all now used by the community as well – from the Aquatics Centre, VeloPark and Copper Box to the temporary venues that were dismantled and moved to other locations after the Games.
All of these sporting legacies are inextricably linked to one another – from the elite level to local communities. When we were preparing for London 2012, we always used to say, “There’s no point trying to inspire young people through sport if you don’t have good role models for them to follow.” That’s why the success of athletes like Dame Jessica Ennis and Sir Chris Hoy in London was so important. But to build on that success, you also need to have the right facilities, and the right opportunities for people to participate at the grassroots level. Inspiration is not enough by itself.
That’s why it’s so important to be precise about how you are going to define that legacy, how you are going to realise it, and how you are going to judge the success of it. For London 2012, we had our five pillars of the economy, regeneration, sport, community and disability, but we perhaps missed a significant one, which is how hosting the Olympic Games can give a host country an undeniable lift. It can change the way people feel about a city and redefine the way that the rest of the world looks at you as a country.
Paris and the whole of France will find that out next year. I remember our final year being full of little bumps in the road, but once the Games start, it is all about the sport and that is all anyone will be focused on.
After that, Paris will be able to bask in the glow of what I am sure will be a fantastic, era-defining Olympic Games.
Sir Hugh Robertson is Chair of the British Olympic Association. Previously, he was the British Minister for Sport and the Olympics, responsible for the delivery of the Olympic Games London 2012, overseeing all aspects of the budget, construction, operational management and legacy.
This article is an edited version of a third-party contribution that first appeared in the Olympic Review. The articles published in the Olympic Review do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the International Olympic Committee.
