I am writing this post on the last day of the London Olympics 2012, there is Modern Pentathlon show jumping on the TV, this morning I watched the men’s Marathon, I’m pretty much as Olympic as it is possible to be.

The last 2 weeks have been fantastic; I and my family have managed to attend 3 Olympic events, Badminton at Wembley Arena (not the cheating matches), Judo at Excel which was wonderful (2 GB victories raising the roof, then 2 defeats sadly), and the Mens Triathlon watching that at London Live in Hyde Park which was a great communal event.

The whole experience has been so positive, being from and working in London you sometimes forget what a wonderful city it is and the Olympics has showcased that to the world, the potential transport disaster hasn’t happened, and even my own company London Underground have managed to provide a pretty good service most of the time.

The Olympics and hopefully the Paralympics have been a massive success, the medal tally the cheering crowds and the massively positive publicity are a testament to this, but we now have to think about how to get the lasting benefit and really inspire a generation.

School sports are rightly cited as an obvious way to change not only our countries sporting achievement, BUT more importantly in my view school sports is a way to get our children thinking fit and healthy and avoiding all the obesity diseases that a sedentary lifestyle promotes, I know this as an obese now diabetic father, who is desperate for his son to avoid this fate.

I do have doubts though about the recent David Cameron announcement that “Competitive sports” are to be brought back into primary schools, I’m certainly not anti-competitive sports at school, I played front row highly competitive rugby at secondary school and loved it, but when I was in primary school I was unfit and not into sports in any way, I only developed my love of sport  when I got to secondary school, to me primary school sports should be about children enjoying themselves and developing that love of exercise whatever sport they choose, when they get older we can sharpen their skills with competition if they have the aptitude and the desire, to force young children to take part in competitive sport can be counterproductive, I’m sure we all know people who hate sport because of their experiences at school.

I have loved watching these games they have been a massive success, but if our nations sporting success is to continue we must ensure that our children receive the inclusive sports  teaching that they deserve, that teachers and coaches are given the support and training that they need to inspire their pupils, we have to ensure that the legacy of the Olympics and Paralympics isn’t wasted, that is a bigger challenge than the 2 weeks of the games, but I really think that Great Britain is up for that challenge.

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