Wilson Chowdhry: What legacy has the Olympics left for Britain, London or more specifically Redbridge?

Wilson Chowdhry and Lord Sebastian Coe.

Friday 26th July saw the opening of the Sainsbury's Anniversary Games, a three day athletics competition held at the Stratford Olympic Stadium and televised fairly globally. But has been the real legacy of the Olympics for our country and more specifically local people?

While attending the event on Friday I met with Lord Cole Chairman of the British Olympic Committee, only for a few seconds I must add, but the chance meeting and his welcoming nature got me thinking.

After some research I found that hosting the Olympics cost Britain around £9bn and the Guardian states this is under the revised budget, that came about after the Previous Labour Government initially got things complete;y wrong with a bid of £2.4bn:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/oct/23/london-2012-olympics-cost-total

I believe we can take this as good news. Moreover, a report Published by the BBC suggests that two thirds of our country believe the Olympic games were a success, whilst 74% would welcome a return of the games to Britain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/23434844

Having held a strong reluctance to the games being hosted in London until the beginning of 2012, I myself was very surprised in how I found myself absorbed into the euphoria surrounding the games. The games become a symbol of national pride and too late to purchase any decent tickets for the games, I found myself joining hundreds in Ilford Town Centre who watched the games on the Ilford BID team funded large TV screens. The atmosphere was electric and the company was diverse, friendly and passionate.

After the Olympics Britain's success created a sense of great achievement and stirred many local people, I was involved with conversations about the games, for at least two months after the Paralympics had completed.

Assessing the benefits of the Olympics however will by necessity require subjective or qualitative data. However, it cannot be denied that since the Gold medal achieved by Andrew Murray he went on to win two Grand Slam Tournaments, including this years Wimbledon Final, making him the first British male winner since Fred Perry 76 years ago. This adds to the huge success in the games themselves that led to the biggest haul since 1908, including an expectation beating 29 gold medals.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187363/London-2012-Olympics-saw-Team-GB-men-women-clinch-29-Olympic-gold-medals.html

London has achieved some great new venues and the fact that the deal with West Ham was concluded so soon, with a proviso that the venue is adapted to continue hosting athletics event and concerts, is comforting.

Attendance at the Olympic Stadium on Friday illustrated to me that their is a strong passion for sport in this country. Over 70,000 people attended what in all seriousness should have been a low key event. The event was featured on BBC 1 and Channel 4 and high profile athletes, the likes of Mo Farah and Usain Bolt took part. Moreover, the British Women's 100m relay team won gold in the best time for 12 years.

Funded programmes like Redbridge CVS's "Fit for Fun" have brought free sporting activities to tackle obesity in our local community. At the EIBP's own Community Centre, we have been holding free Bollywood Dancing for children, Zumba Classes for women under this programme and will start providing free Gymnastics classes to children from next year using funds from a "Help a Capital Child" Grant. There has been so much funding towards sports in this country to inspire an Olympic legacy, that I personally believe we will not truly recognise the benefits of the 2012 games for another 10 years at least.

If you would like to join any of the fitness programmes currently running at our community centre, please get in contact.