Former Olympian Greg Whyte OBE discusses huge sporting impact of Paris 2024 Games

Local TV Sport

The Olympic Games in Paris had drawn the attention of millions across the world but just how much of an impact has it actually had?   We spoke to former Team GB Olympian and now sport scientist Greg Whyte on the impact of this years’ summer of sport.

Transcript

00:00So, Greg, just tell us a bit about the sort of impact of the Olympics and the summer sport,

00:06because, you know, it's been an incredible summer for people to get active and maybe

00:10even learn a new sport as well.

00:13Absolutely. I mean, first off, I mean, what an incredible Olympic Games. I mean, it really

00:18was an expose and a fantastic shop window for such a vast array of sports, which I think

00:24is what is the truly great thing about the Olympic Games. And what we also know is that

00:29work I've done with Ocean Bottle and some research that we've undertaken to take a look

00:33at what the inspiration has been. It's been really interesting is that over half of respondents

00:39have come back and said that they've been inspired to take up a new sport. And I think

00:43that that's to some extent the importance of the Olympic Games is not only in the sport

00:48itself, but it's actually the legacy that it creates around it. And I think to inspire

00:53people to take up new sports, often those sports they don't get exposed to on a regular

00:58basis, I think has been absolutely fabulous. And that is good for sport going forward,

01:05because it is the importance of grassroots sports cannot be undersold. It is so important

01:12because the number of people participating in sports has a profound impact on how good

01:19the elite athletes in that sport are. So it is great to see that it has inspired people

01:26to take up new sports and perhaps sports they wouldn't have thought of before.

01:30Yeah, you mentioned there, obviously, starting at the grassroots level. I feel personally

01:35that the 2024 is a summer, you know, the first summer really since COVID where, you know,

01:40there is more involvement and togetherness throughout sport. Would you sort of agree

01:44with that? And what have you sort of seen that could suggest that?

01:47Oh, I think I think absolutely. I mean, you know, it's a funny one, though, because, you

01:51know, as humans, we sort of we've got these rose coloured spectacles and we sort of forget

01:55what happened in the past. But if you saw some of those images from from the Tokyo Olympics

02:00only three years ago, I mean, sometimes we saw obviously the Olympics generally moves

02:04in four year cycles. But because of the pandemic, it was delayed by a year. But even at that

02:09time, no audiences. And it looked strange when you look back at it. But of course, the

02:17backdrop of that as well, though, was that the home people were were shut down as well.

02:23You know, there was no access to facilities. So even if you were inspired to do a new sport,

02:29you couldn't access the facilities in order to try it out. So for me, I think you're right,

02:34is that the 2024 has been fantastic. And of course, what we've done over the past probably

02:39five years is we've seen an exponential growth in facilities around the UK, where most leisure

02:44centres now have a climbing wall. And so therefore, not only are people inspired to take part

02:51in these events, but also they've got access to local facilities, local coaching, local

02:55clubs, where they can actually action that inspiration.

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