Olympics Legacy

[janaage]

What a cracking idea to bring back Grandstand.

[kerry red]

Although the lottery funding is great and has made a massive difference,i still think the opportunities are not there for working class kids apart from at football clubs. Alot of the olympic sports will either be for the reasonably wealthy kids and parents with time on their hands.
That needs to change and sports need to be made more available for all

Yes. Very difficult for the UK government to reconcile the selling off of skool playing fields with their new-found PR opportunities with GB athletes

[Ardiles]

Is Frank Bough still alive?

Either way (& I hope he is, by the way) Grandstand followed by the classified check...unmissable on a Saturday.

[kerry red]

Jeff Stelling and the boys have that coffin well and truly nailed down

[Benzel]

There will be a rise in viewing figures for Eurosport for about 3 months.

[Reg Smeeton]

Our PL footballers should take a long hard look at Bolt for a perfect example of the model sports professional and an ideal role model for them. Probably the highest profile sports person in the world at present yet completely down to earth, friendly, plenty of time for fans, a pleasure to see being interviewed and so on. Him doing the mo-bot and not wanting to stop hugging a bloke in the crowd with a Bolt t-shirt on were my Bolt highlights.

Think the way the Team GB athletes acted throughout the games will have a long lasting effect on people, especially kids.

Think they already have....Bolt doesn't run in Britain as he doesn't like the tax he has to pay.

[Baggins]

I'm fully behind the return of Grandstand.  This argument is a bit chicken and egg.  Do we not watch sports because they are not on free to air TV, or are they not on free to air TV because we don't watch them?  I certainly think the total dominance of football - and clearly we are all huge football fans - plays a part in the lack of other sports on mainstream TV. 

Hopefully there will be a couple of breakout sports - obviously it'll never happen but I'd love it to be canoe slalom - its brilliant!  I'd really like to see more athletics coverage though, some of the athletes we have seen are inspirational - we really do (most of us) only see them once every four years.

[BenTheRed]

'Legacy' should be focusing on primary and secondary schools, compulsory sports every day with teachers or coaches that can catch the imagination of the kids. There should be one sport for everyone out there to get passionate about, to fall in love with and the ones that find one that they're quite good at, they can take it further.
The kids that enjoy sport in school are more likely to keep going.

there should be competition between schools too

[leefer]

Think they already have....Bolt doesn't run in Britain as he doesn't like the tax he has to pay.

Surely the tax man couldn't catch him

[jonny72]

I'm fully behind the return of Grandstand.  This argument is a bit chicken and egg.  Do we not watch sports because they are not on free to air TV, or are they not on free to air TV because we don't watch them?  I certainly think the total dominance of football - and clearly we are all huge football fans - plays a part in the lack of other sports on mainstream TV.  

Have we maybe just lost our way a bit? Football has become more and more dominant since the formation of the PL, so much so that we've almost forgotten about all the other sports out there. You have to ask why we're suddenly all interested in these other sports though and how we carry that on, I'm convinced we need the Team GB angle as it gives a team to support which we are all so familiar with through football.

Surely the tax man couldn't catch him

Maybe he's not as fast as we think - he couldn't out run the steward who took the baton off him after the relay.

[dave_bambers_right_sock]

'Legacy' should be focusing on primary and secondary schools, compulsory sports every day with teachers or coaches that can catch the imagination of the kids. There should be one sport for everyone out there to get passionate about, to fall in love with and the ones that find one that they're quite good at, they can take it further.
The kids that enjoy sport in school are more likely to keep going.

there should be competition between schools too

Bring back that kids TV programme 'We are the Champions'

[Coca Fola]

The BBC and Sky need to think about giving the lesser sports more coverage, as someone said the only sports channel that really covers them is Eurosport.

[cheltred69]

Although the lottery funding is great and has made a massive difference,i still think the opportunities are not there for working class kids apart from at football clubs. Alot of the olympic sports will either be for the reasonably wealthy kids and parents with time on their hands.
That needs to change and sports need to be made more available for all

Probably true for a number of the sports that we have excelled at such as rowing, track cycling and horses - I'd say it's a major contributor to why we've been so successful - poorer countries don't have the resources to compete.

But athletics, the blue riband event of the Olympics, which will inevitably fade back into obscurity for the next 4 years, is not that way.
It doesn't involve a lot of equipment (just a pair of spikes really - any other equipment will be provided by clubs) and volunteer coaches work hard at clubs up and down the country to develop kids.  My local club charges £2 a session to train which covers the cost of hiring the track for club nights - when my son played football he paid at least that to train and play each week.  The biggest problem we have in some parts of the country is local councils not wanting to provide and keep up the facilities in light of budget cuts from the same government that wants to take credit from the successes that ultimately emerge.

[fatbasher]

Bring back that kids TV programme 'We are the Champions'

Now that is a good shout mate!

[Bewster]

Bring back Superstars - want to see Joey Barton fall off his bike like Keegan did.