Paris 2024 Olympics: Team GB Legacy

Debate between Tonia Antoniazzi and Jessica Morden

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Westminster Hall

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I totally agree. It is lovely that the hon. Gentleman has had the opportunity to celebrate those Northern Irish athletes at their homecoming. That is really magic and I look forward to the homecoming that the Paralympians will have as well. It is important that we have that funding. How do we find the next Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe? They are our first ever artistic swimming medallists, who trained in their local community pool. “Legacy” is a word that is thrown around an awful lot, and we are very familiar with its use around the Olympics. Legacy was a huge part of London 2012: a pledge to get 2 million people involved in sport and physical activity was at the heart of the bid. However, it is not enough to rely on major sporting events to drive up participation at the grassroots level. The sporting benefit promised by the London 2012 organisers sadly has not been fully realised. In 2022, a decade on from the games, only 13% of leaders across the sports sector agreed that the London 2012 Olympics had delivered the legacy promise—that was in a survey from the Sports Think Tank.

The biggest legacy failures were identified in the delivery of a sporting and physically active nation, and in inspiring a generation of young people to create a sporting habit for life. That is where I have an ask for the Minister. I have the passion and drive to work with the Minister and her Department in the new Government to make sport and activity something that we continue to do, from the time we can toddle around until we toddle off. I genuinely believe that that is what we need to do.

According to ukactive, 25.7% of people—11.9 million—in the UK still engage in less than 30 minutes of exercise a week. If we are going to create a legacy for future generations following on from the elite sporting events we saw this summer, we need a strategy and, importantly, we need infrastructure.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on calling this debate. She has an obvious passion for sport, which we all know about. The whole of the Team GB track cycling team trained at the Newport velodrome in the International Sports Village, including the world record breakers Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant. The team return to our city time and again, and cite the Newport effect as part of their success. Does my hon. Friend agree as a Welsh MP that championing those kinds of facilities is massively important for us in Wales and across the UK in order to see that group of young people come through for the future?

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

My hon. Friend is completely right. It is fantastic to see the velodrome in Newport in her constituency—it is a gem. In fact, if she does not mind, I would like to see one in Swansea.

I am pleased that UK Sport has taken the initiative of launching the changemakers fund, along with Team GB, Paralympics GB and the National Lottery. The aim of the fund is to get athletes into sports projects they are passionate about and to make a difference. Athletes can apply for funding towards projects that resonate with them. We saw that with the weightlifting bronze medallist Emily Campbell, who helped to launch the fund and said that she would be applying. She wants to use her platform to make a difference in her local community. We need to do more, and I will keep on saying so. I believe that we in Parliament should harness the buzz around Team GB going forward.

I am pleased to hear the Secretary of State commit to a review of the curriculum to put sport at its heart. Both sport and art are vital tools in allowing our young people to let off steam and express themselves. We all know that since covid that is something we need to put more emphasis on. I have another opportunity to invite the Minister to speak with me and Brian Moore about a project around sport in the curriculum that he has been vocal about.

We all know the health benefits of regular physical activity, so it is important that it is intertwined with education in a way that does not put students off. Having been a teacher for 20 years, I know that they are easily put off if they think they have to do something they do not want to do. It is all about engaging them in the right sports and activities at the right time, and making them want to improve. That improvement will drive their enthusiasm to be more active.

Sport needs to be accessible within our communities. The Secretary of State has committed to that, and I look forward to seeing how, through planning sport and new build houses and towns, we can push it forward. Sadly, according to Sport England, the opportunities to get involved in sport and physical activity continue to depend on people’s background, sex, bank balance and postcode. According to ukactive, only 42% of children from less affluent families meet the chief medical officer’s activity guidelines, compared with 52% from more affluent backgrounds. Worryingly, just 45% of children in the most deprived areas can swim 25 metres, compared with 76% in wealthier regions.

Research shows time and again that girls and women over all age groups are less likely to participate in sport than their male counterparts. We need to address that urgently. I hope that we will commit to a strategy to inspire women and girls to be more active. Women in Sport has found that only 29% of girls dream of reaching the top in their sport, compared with 52% of boys. I want to inspire all those girls in the future to be the best that they can. People know that I played rugby for Wales, but I did not have that opportunity growing up. When people have a sport or activity that they love and can share with their friends, it contributes to their wellbeing, happiness and future health. This Government will embrace that.

Sport England’s Active Lives adult survey for 2022-23 found that those who identify as Black, Asian—excluding Chinese—Chinese or other were less likely to be active than those who identify as white British. We need to think about the statistics that are being produced. The facts repeat themselves time and again, and while there are root causes, which have been revealed, they are rarely acted on. I would like to ask the Minister what plans her Department has to review participation levels and take steps to address this imbalance, because there are more benefits to participation than just improving physical fitness.

This morning I came into Parliament having played tennis with my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater), which was a joy—