London 2012 Euphoria has Died, But Will the Olympic Legacy Live on?

It was the key pledge supporting London’s bid to host the Olympics, made winningly by Lord Coe and the then-prime minister Tony Blair: that a British Games would “inspire a generation” to become more involved in sport. A nation still heady with the glories it has witnessed now expects greater sporting opportunities as a legacy of the Games and their £9.3bn cost, but the Olympic torch has not burned away the stubborn realities dragging people the other way. Modern life for most besides those few full-time athletes is increasingly sedentary; Britain’s sports facilities are old, tired and seriously underfunded, and being further depleted by swingeing government cuts to local authority budgets.