This week marks the one year anniversary of London 2012 and Britain’s most successful Olympic games. As you will remember, Team GB rode high in the final medals table and a rather sceptical nation celebrated - as Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Co romped to their respective triumphs.
Despite London 2012 coming in three times over budget, recent government research has revealed that hosting the games could have boosted the UK economy by as a much as £9.9 billion. So we thought it would be interesting to see how the games are viewed a year on and take a look back at our top three highlights.
Following a year to reflect on the games, a new survey carried out for the BBC by ComRes shows that more than two-thirds of the country believe the games were worth the money and 74% would welcome the games back to Britain.
As for the much discussed ‘legacy’ aspect of the games, the survey reveals a mixed picture. Generally our feelings are very positive towards London 2012, however, general participation in sport has had a temporary boost and dropped off into 2013. But Sports England points out, there are now 1.4 million more people playing sport than when we won the bid for the games in 2005. So by anyone's measure increased participation like this is a fantastic legacy of the games.
When you consider the positive public feeling, the British success, the volunteers, the economic benefits, the number of social firsts (in both the Olympics and Paralympics) and the overall increased sporting participation. London 2012 was a rip-roaring success, a once in a generation moment where the typically cynical British population celebrated achievement with gusto, whilst also enjoying showcasing our nation to the world.
Despite the Government cut-backs on the grass-roots of sport, including clubs and local facilities, participation in sport has not dropped off aggressively. The last year has shown, Britain has remained triumphant in many sports and the success kicked off by the Olympics see’s no sign of abating.
Our Top 3 Moments of 2012
There are too many glorious moments to mention from London 2012, every sport contributed amazingly, but for us the most iconic and defining images from the Olympics came from the Athletic events.
1) Mo Farah’s 5000m Gold -
Mighty Mo, the refugee who defied the odds, winning Gold in both the ten and five thousand metre events to become a hero. Plus his, ‘MoBot’ celebration was one of the most copied moments of the Olympics.
2) Jessica Ennis’s Heptathlon Gold -
Sheffield’s Jessica Ennis was the face of the games in the build up, despite the pressure, she performed fantastically to win gold and fulfil her promise. Her gold on what became known as ‘super-Saturday’, was one of the stand-out moments.
3) Usain Bolt's 100m Victory -
Not a Brit, but Jamaica and the world’s fastest man won three golds overall and became one of the most successful athletes of all time. Another man with an iconic celebration, who will go down as a sporting great.
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