WHAT'S THE HIDDEN OLYMPIC LEGACY?

Posted: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 16:06

WHAT'S THE HIDDEN OLYMPIC LEGACY?

By Wayne Morris, Head of Community & CSR, Premiership Rugby

There's been a lot of talk focus on the Olympic legacy, recently. Rightly so. The taxpayer must be sure the money has created a lasting impact.

But in all the talk, one key legacy has been unfairly overlooked: our expertise in Sport for Development.

Too few realize (let alone acknowledge) that the UK is an intellectual and practical powerhouse in the sport for development field.

We have top quality academics, coaches, charities, policy makers, sports organisations (public and private) and great sporting ambassadors focused on using sport for development and social change.

For the sake of argument, let's call this group Team GB's Sport for Development Squad and imagine they were competing in a Sport for Development Olympics. They'd top the medals table, no problem.

How can I be so sure?

Well, for the last 18 months we've been working with the British council and Sesi, a Brazilian education provider on a sport for development programme called Try Rugby SP. It leverages the lessons we've learnt in delivering programmes like Hitz to deal with disadvantaged people. Now the programme is going to be extended from its pilot cities.

In fact, so impressed by the scheme are the Brazilians that next week, a group of Brazilian educationalists and sport specialists arrive in the UK on a 'study tour'. Their goal is to take back home lessons on how Premiership Rugby and others in the UK uses sport for development to get people fit, change attitudes to eating and deal with social disadvantage.

Brazilian state officials want to make a success of their Olympic legacy and improve their education system, too, through expanding the use of sport in the curricula. And they're coming here to learn.

We should celebrate our sport for development expertise as the hidden legacy of the Olympics and a positive sports policy environment over the last decade and more.

We should do this not just because we want to maximize the return on our Olympic investment or build Brand Britain or support our export drive but because sport is also a powerful weapon in UK PLC's armoury of 'soft power'. And sport is, after all, something Britain is truly GREAT at.

Tags: Brazil, Olympic legacy, Premiership Rugby, TRY Rugby SP

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