The fraught disputes over how best to recoup the high construction and maintenance costs of the London Olympic stadium conform to a pattern previously seen elsewhere in England and abroad. The story of the Don Valley stadium in Sheffield provides a cautionary tale of how the visionary delusions of ambitious politicians end up ruining the chances of ordinary people gaining adequate access to affordable opportunities for healthy recreation.

‘I think the Vitality programme is absolutely brilliant – everything I stand for is echoed in the values of Vitality.’ These are the inane words of Olympic heroine Jessica Ennis, now earning a fast buck as a ‘Vitality Ambassadress’ through which she will ‘participate in a number of marketing activities…which add value to the Vitality proposition’. Diplomatically, she continues ‘we all love to be rewarded for our hard work to get healthy…’

Promises, promises

"There's a direct link between elite success and participation in sport”

David Cameron 12 Aug 2012

Now it's the turn of Loughborough University and Leicestershire Constabulary to get up the nose of the British Olympic Association! It's already being charged £750,000 to use the facilities at Loughborough for Team GB but it is now facing a further charge of £1million for security.

Mike Weed is Professor of Sport and Society and Director of the Centre for Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research (SPEAR) at Canterbury Christ Church University. He also engages with #media2012, and was a speaker at the recent annual olympic and paralympic conference of PODIUM, the London 2012 Further and Higher Education Unit. Republished with permission here is a piece calling for a debate around 2012 sporting legacies which he asserts has been largely absent.

There has been no end of promises for a sporting legacy for London in the wake of the 2012 Games. But fine sentiments alone are not going to deliver it to future generations of Londoners, argues Kurt Barling, BBC London.

One of the supposed objectives of the 2012 Olympics is to stimulate greater participation by the general public in sport. However, another even more pressing concern is the final medal table and Britain’s place in it. The National Audit Office recently got in on the act and produced a report (see attachment) on Britain’s strategy for increasing its medal tally at the Olympic Games.

NewteredPhoto from Londoncyclesport.com