Bradley Wiggins’ recent success in becoming the first British rider to win the Tour de France must rank as one of the greatest sporting achievements by a British athlete; the success of Team Sky Pro Cycling one of the greatest sporting achievements by a British team. It follows on from British cycling’s phenomenal success in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: eight gold, four silver and two bronze medals.
But it is not just elite cycling that is enjoying unprecedented success. British cycling recently announced that it has doubled its membership to more than 50,000 since 2008. Across Britain cycling is enjoying a golden age.
None of this has come about by accident. It came about following a decade of record investment in the sport, investment made possible by a Labour government. And not just in cycling: record investment in elite sport, school sport and grassroots sport
By finishing fourth in the medals table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Team GB recorded our best ever performance in the modern Olympics.
In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Great Britain came 36th in the medal table – our worst-ever Olympic performance. This followed two decades of underinvestment by successive Tory governments. It’s not rocket science to see the link between a government’s attitude to sport and success in elite sport and increased participation in sport.
The situation we inherited in 1997 was truly dire.
Between 1979 and 1997 the Tories allowed 10,000 playing fields to be sold off. We brought in legislation to protect school playing fields in 1998
In 1997 just one in four school children were taking part in two hours’ high quality PE a week. We established the Youth Sports Trust and introduced School Sports Partnerships and set ambitious targets to increase participation rates. By 2010 over 90 per cent of pupils in partnership schools were receiving this level of PE. And we set a target of 60 per cent of pupils participating in at least five hours sport by 2012.
Children taking part in competitive sport increased from 58 per cent in 2006-7 to 78 per cent in 2009-10. Tory governments never even collected this data.
Through Sport England we tasked the National Governing Bodies of all sports with increasing participation rates. Their funding was directly linked with meeting these targets.
By the time we left office in 2010 our sports infrastructure at elite, school and grassroots levels were the envy of the world.
Putting sport at the heart of cross-departmental policy-making wasn’t done because the cabinet and parliamentary Labour party was full of sports fans (although it was). Sport is good for society. It brings health benefits, can help prevent antisocial behaviour, it helps build confidence in children, it can help combat mental health problems … The list of policy ‘wins’ that sport can give is inexhaustible.
The coalition government have dismantled the fantastic work we have done. School Sports Partnerships have been largely scrapped and starved of funding. Schools will no longer have to collect data on participation rates. The National Planning Policy Framework will undo the protections for playing fields that we put in place. Funding for all levels of sport has been slashed.
In Singapore, seven years ago, when we won our bid to host the Games, we made a promise to the international community and the people of this country – to inspire a generation of young people through sport. The coalition is in danger of betraying that promise.
—————————————————————————————
Gerry Sutcliffe is Member of Parliament for Bradford South and was minister for sport 2007-2010
—————————————————————————————
Read Also … More articles on the Olympics
—————————————————————————————