10 years on, what is the true legacy of the London 2012 Olympics? – Metro.co.uk

The burst of national pride at the London 2012 Olympic Games is continuing to echo through the years (Picture: Metro.co.uk/Getty/PA)

The blaze of glory provided some of British sports most electrifying moments in history.

Ten years on, and even in dark times, the feelgood factor from the London 2012 Olympics cant be dimmed.

The unforgettable host year reaped 185 gold medals for Team GBs Olympians and Paralympians, gave birth to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and involved 70,000 Games Makers, half of whom continued to volunteer after the event.

Waves were made on Super Saturday when Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford won gold, while Alistair and Johnny Brownlee took gold and bronze respectively in Hyde Park.

After the torch was handed over to Rio 2016, the legacy and funding, including through the Spirit of 2012 trust, has lived on in numerous sporting, educational and community projects.

A million people continue to visit the park every year, with 110,000 more jobs being created in the host boroughs over the decade, according to the International Olympic Committee.

Yet not everyone buys the notion of a glorious post-Games world.

Promises over affordable housing development in and around the park are said to have fallen short, with some residents saying they have been priced out of the market for new homes.

One citizens group wants more to be done to stop the neighbourhood being an exclusive oasis of wealth, while a London charity said few inroads have been made in tackling poverty and inequality in the city.

A decade on from the day of the opening ceremony, Metro.co.uk has given the2012figureheads and those whobrought it to lifeon the ground the chance tosharetheir thoughts in their own words.

Lord Seb Coe took a pivotal role in the host year as chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

He gave a rousing speech at the spectacular opening ceremony, saying London 2012 will inspire a generation and those involved would be able to tell their grandchildren, we got it right.

Lord Coe, now World Athletics president, hailed an impressive legacy that continues to benefit British sport.

I cant believe that we are already celebrating the10-year anniversary of the London 2012 Games an Olympic Games which is now largely considered as one of the best in history.

Those Games truly brought Great Britain together. Who can forget Super Saturday, that remarkable day when 80,000 spectators in Londons Olympic stadium witnessed the pinnacle of British sport?

That night, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford became household names across the world and showed dominant sporting nations that Team GB was a force to be reckoned with. To this day, Britons agree it was our countrys greatest moment in a summer Olympic Games.

London 2012 gave Britain a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to inspire a nation to enjoy sport, but that is not the only positive outcome of those Games. Indeed, they left behind an impressive legacy something that very few host nations enjoy.

From residential development to school PE programmes and public-private sector partnerships, it is no wonder that 75% of Britons would welcome another Games.

This is but one of the reasons most local organising committees use London 2012 as a template.

It showed them that the Olympic Games could, in fact, deliver long-lasting value for their money, and as the chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, this makes me very proud. I am also proud that we continue to see the value of hosting those Games 10 years on.

All one has to do is look at the state-of-the-art sporting venues scattered across London not to mention the new district in the heart of East London that was built at lightning speed.

But one of the things I am most proud of from these Games is the cross-government legacy project that ringfenced 150 millionper annum for sport in primary schools across the country. We need to do more of this.

Every country should be looking at bringing sport, education, health and community services together to deliver better solutions to its people and communities. After all, they all overlap.

I will never forget seeing the BBC pan the Olympic stadium on the first morning and seeing that it was full. I remember thinking in that moment that what we delivered as a country was nothing short of remarkable.

We worked hard on these Games, and everyone did their part.

From theprimeminister to the volunteers, everyone came together to deliver a truly British product from start to finish and that is something we can all be proud of.

The Mayor revealed last week that his office is working on a plan to bring the Olympics back to the capital with a bid for 2036.

Sadiq Khan wants the greenest Games ever to build on 2012, which he hailed for driving billions of pounds worth of investment into the city.

Mr Khan, whose predecessor Boris Johnson parachuted into the opening ceremony, also acknowledged the errors made in the past as he pledged to provide more affordable housing in the park.

The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games breathed new life into east London and helped to drive billions of pounds of additional investment in the area for new, truly affordable homes, transport links, business districts and entertainment.

As a result of the investment sparked by the Games, five world-class institutions including the V&A, BBC, UniversityCollegeLondon, University of theArtsLondonand Sadlers Wells will form the new East Bank the largest culture and education district for a generation.

The creation of Barking Riverside and the Elizabeth line have also transformed transport links in east London and I will continue to correct the errors made in the past by delivering on my commitments to provide 50% affordable housing across all new developments on the park.

The Olympic legacy is not just about celebrating the success of the last 10 years but looking forward to the next 10 and the years beyond that in order to build a better, fairer, more prosperous London for everyone.

Liz Stainthorpe, manager of The Games Maker Choir, volunteered at an accreditation desk in Heathrow but still found herself swept up in what would be a life-changing summer of sport.

Liz, 56, from York, has been volunteering ever since, including at the UEFA Womens Euros, with the choir continuing to perform. She had worked in advertising but as a result of the Games moved into the music industry in a marketing role.

The spirit of the Olympic Games invaded London 2012 and was felt by so many people who were there.

So much had gone on beforehand with 7/7 marring the announcement and the bad press that inevitably comes before Olympic Games about whether they would be ready on time.

Then there was a fantastic swell of pride which just got bigger and bigger and bigger until Super Saturday when it exploded in glory.

There was a sense of team spirit and national pride, we all felt like an extension of Team GB.

Im a big sports fan, which is why I volunteered, and I felt part of something bigger than just me in my uniform laminating passes at Heathrow.

Volunteering at the Games changed the direction of my life.

It led to a complete change of career and I have spent the last 10 years managing the choir.

The wider legacy is that the nation has changed its attitude to volunteering. Its not just for retired people working at the local charity shop any more.

The Games made it cool to volunteer, galvanising that lovely can we help spirit and sharing it among people of all ages.

Susie Dye is grants manager and housing work lead at Trust for London, a registered charity which tackles poverty and inequality in the city. The trust has funded Citizens UK, Anti-Slavery International and Toynbee Hall for work connected to the 2012 Olympics.

Ten years ago the Olympic Games came to London, with an image of a city coming together to celebrate the diverse teams achievements.

The six Olympic boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest saw physical transformation, and in some cases people losing their homes and workplaces, to make way for a promised legacy of jobs, investment and homes.

But the data shows that this isnt the case: the Olympic boroughs still have above-average unemployment, with 18% of residents in Barking and Dagenham on out-of-work benefits* and one in five Londoners still being paid below the London Living Wage, which isnow 11.05, and trying to keep pace with the rising cost of living in the capital. The figure rises to 24% in Newham, which saw the biggest transformations and the opening of the huge Westfield shopping centre at Stratford.

Child poverty numbers are particularly striking: 39% of people in Tower Hamlets and 56% of children are living in poverty. Seventy-six per cent of children in poverty in London are in working families.

London also continues to be the most unequal region in the country and the Olympic boroughs are among the most unequal, with Hackney having 2.8 times Londons average pay ratio of the highest to lowest 20% of earners.

It shows whats needed is a renewed and sustained commitment, with London and national government coming together to tackle poverty, really levelling up the country for those on low incomes and fulfilling the promise and hope we shared in 2012.

*Source:Londons Poverty Profile 2021

Penny Bernstock is co-chair of the Olympic Strategy Group at the Citizens UK chapter of East London Citizens, an umbrella group of organisations acting for social justice and the common good.

She is also visiting senior research fellow at University College London and has written a book on the wider impact of the Games entitled Olympic Housing: A Critical Review of London 2012s Legacy.

I was really excited and emotional when we won the bid, but the legacy has been disappointing.

Its been delivered in a very top-down way and theres scope for working more closely with local communities in order to make the legacy work.

There are some good things; London 2012 has been the first Living Wage Olympics, theres a Good Growth Hub and they are beginning to build more affordable housing.

If you had asked me about the legacy four years ago I would have been much more despondent, but these things dont compensate for a project that has mainly benefited professional groups from outside Stratford.

Given it was a public project, the question remains of why an area at the epicentre of Britains housing crisis has so much market housing.

The promise to regenerate the area for everyone that lives there hasnt done this for everyone that lives there. Its provided an oasis of wealth that could be so much better.

There is affordable housing on the park but they havent delivered on the 50% ratio that was promised. Then there is the problem that a substantial chunk of what is described as affordable is no such thing.

To give the policymakers their due, they have increased the amount of genuinely affordable housing at Chobham, East Wick and Sweetwater, but it needs to go further.

In 2005 it was agreed that community land trusthousingwould be developed on the park, this ishousingthat is genuinely affordable and mapped to median incomes and remains affordable in perpetuity.

Ten years on not a single one of these homes has been built on the park.

Another disappointing feature of thehousinglegacy is the lack of genuinely affordable housing and community involvement.

We would like to see a housing inclusion zone on the last neighbourhood on the park. This would provide an opportunity topilot new forms of community-led, genuinely affordablehousing,including land trust housing, that would create a meaningful and lasting legacy for east Londoners.

Theres still a future to play for in the Olympic park and more affordable housing could be added to the last neighbourhoods to compensate for whats missing. New jobs are also being created on the park and its important to make sure local people benefit from those opportunities.

When we won the bid, they talked about the world in one city, and its as important as ever to make sure the legacy of the Olympic park reflects the full diversity of east London.

Rachel Flenley was a dancer in the Frankie and June say Thanks Tim segment of Danny Boyles mesmerising opening ceremony.

The PR account director, 32, from Surrey, performed in a best of British-scored tribute to World Wide Web father Tim Berners-Lee.

When describing it to people, I say do you remember the bit with the inflatable house? and that tends to help them place me. It was a celebration of music through the decades, and my specific section was the 80s and 90s.

A lot of neon, some excellent pyrotechnics and a lot of fun.

My abiding memories are a real blend of just having the absolute best time and also it feeling like the most surreal experience Ill probably ever have.

I remember there being such a great atmosphere in London in the run-up to the ceremony; a real buzz and sense of excited anticipation.

The event itself went by in a bit of a blur. There were so many performers and so much colour and noise it was just so surreal. And once we were called for our section it was absolute game faces on from everyone.

Our incredible choreographers hyped us over our in-ears, getting us ready and then bam. We were out and the music was playing and we were all just dancing our hearts out. It was such a bizarre combination of being super focused on getting everything right but also wanting to absorb the enormity of the moment and take it all in.

I have always danced and always loved performing, and to do it on a stage like that was just incredible and something I will never forget.

For a few years afterwards, I got really stuck into choreography, creating routines for a few local musicals, which I really loved. I think my London 2012 experience definitely helped me realise just how much I enjoy it and gave me the confidence to get involved with theatre groups and choreograph for them.

I feel like London 2012 was the last time we were all really happy.

There was such an amazing bond when we hosted the Olympics.

The tour of the torch, the thousands of volunteers, the gold postboxes it was all just such a wonderful celebration of Great Britain, which feels like a bit of a distant memory now.

I do however think that it has had a lasting impact on our love of sport beyond football as a nation.

I love thinking that there are people who might have had London 2012 as their first Olympics that inspired them into a career in sport, who well then be seeing on Olympic podiums in years to come.

Rebecca Adlington won two bronze medals at the 2012 Olympics. Although she was unable to match her two golds at Beijing 2008, the first time in a century that a British swimmer had taken top honours more than once, it was London that proved life-changing.

Rebecca retired in 2013 and set up her Swim Stars programme aimed at teaching every child in Britain to swim.

I have so many amazing memories; I think about the legacy, the venues, Super Saturday, all the brilliant volunteersandthe GamesMakers.

London was a different place, the country was; everyone was in high spirits it was just an amazing place to be.

On a personal level, my first race was the 400m and I only just scraped into the final in 8th place so to come away with a bronze medal was just not expected. I felt incredibly proud of that achievement.

And then the 800m the time was just not there for me so to get another bronze medal was actually a highlight of my whole career. I got so emotional on the podium, to have so many people chanting my name and knowing it was my last Games. It really was extra special and something I will remember for the rest of my life.

London 2012is why I started my learn to swim programme. It has completely defined my business life and the past 10 years.

After 2012, I was inspired to do something myself and to be here now teaching 15,000 kids a week to swim is just incredible.

The legacy of the Games has been a huge influence for me had it not been for London I wouldnt have been so inspired and would be unlikely to be in the position Im in now.

Ifeel the Games has had wider success, definitely in the immediate period afterwards in terms of participation in and awareness of all Olympic sports.

It was great to see so many people taking up netball, hockey etc. And that increased participation expands to more jobs so everyone benefits.

Covid obviously had a big impact and put things on pause but its good to be getting back on track with live sport, a home Commonwealth Games and the Euros etc. There is so much to take inspiration from.

The community aspect was also huge its where sport has to start, at grassroots level. And with swimming as a life skill we need to get that right. With facilities closing and accessibility an issue for schools, we need to be investing at grassroots level. Its so important.

Looking forward another 10 years, I think the tremendous spirit and success of the Games can be equalled and bettered by British sport.

You see it from each Olympics, particularly from a swimming perspective. Tokyo was the best ever games for us as a swimming team in terms of our results. London played a big part in that, these things dont happen overnight it takes time, people are inspired, momentum builds and then we have to continue building.

Covid hit the younger generation at grassroots and community level but at the same time we are seeing womens sport having more visibility. There is a long way to go of course, plenty more to be done.

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10 years on, what is the true legacy of the London 2012 Olympics? - Metro.co.uk