00:00So, Greg, just tell us a bit about the impact of the Olympics and summer sport, because
00:07it's been an incredible summer for people to get active and even learn a new sport as
00:12well.
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
00:28the work I've done with Ocean Bottle and some research that we've undertaken to take
00:33a look at what the inspiration has been, it's been really interesting is that over half
00:38of respondents have come back and said that they've been inspired to take up a new sport.
00:43And I think that that's, to some extent, the importance of the Olympic Games is not only
00:47in the sport itself, but it's actually the legacy that it creates around it. And I think
00:52to inspire people to take up new sports, often those sports they don't get exposed to on
00:57a regular basis, I think has been absolutely fabulous. And that is good for sport going
01:04forward, because it is the importance of grassroots sports cannot be undersold 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 it there. I mean, it started at the grassroots level. I feel personally
01:35that 2024 is the summer, you know, the first sort of summer since COVID, where there's
01:39been more involvement and togetherness throughout sports. Do you agree with that? And what have
01:44you sort of seen to suggest that?
01:46Oh, I think I think absolutely. I mean, you know, it's a funny one, because, you know,
01:51as humans, we've 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 2024 has been fantastic. And of course, what we've done over the past probably five
02:39years 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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