London Olympics Bill

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. As he knows, I have a great passion for grassroots sport in particular. I still play rugby every Saturday afternoon during the winter, at the playing field of the school that I attended until I was 18. I must admit that on Saturday afternoon we are the only team that uses the pitches, tennis courts, basketball courts and indoor facilities of that school. The costs have increased dramatically over the past few years. In terms of the legacy of the Olympics, we should make it successful across the country. Unless there is a legacy not only at the elite level, about which I want to speak specifically, but at the grassroots level, nobody will feel that there has been enormous benefit. Great expectations have rightly been raised since the announcement. Everyone wants a training camp in their constituency, and everyone thinks that every 14-year-old they know who is quite good at sport will be in the Olympics. The reality, however, is that we will have a team of only about 200 or 300 athletes. I wish people well, but most of those who will be competing in the Olympics in seven years’ time are probably already in development squads. Many people who are very excited about the Olympics will still, like me, be playing on muddy pitches around their constituencies in 20 years’ time, and not competing at elite level. It is therefore important that we get the right combination of funding for elite athletes who will go on to win gold medals, to which having the Olympics in London will make an enormous difference, and ensuring that the real legacy is not just 50 m swimming pools but swimming pools across the patch, decent playing fields and decent changing rooms across the country. So my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) makes an important point. In relation to the sale of playing fields, there has been a step change, and while we have not reached the point at which we are not selling any off, at least there has been a massive reduction. In many cases, where a playing field has been sold, it has been replaced by a better facility, as is the case in my constituency. In terms of regional development, places such as Loughborough, Sheffield and Bath—I see that the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) is back in his place; we follow each other around all the time—have, as part of the English Institute of Sport, some of the best facilities in the world for athletes. The Chinese team have already been to look around facilities such as ours, and will probably locate themselves at one of our three bases. As other Members have said, however, I am keen on not just Loughborough benefiting, but the whole of Leicestershire and possibly the whole east midlands. We cannot provide all the facilities for the Chinese team, but we could do athletics, netball, basketball and a wide range of other events, and we have a 50 m pool and cricket academy. Others events would have to be farmed out within the region, so a great partnership would be required. Every Member rightly wants something to come to their constituency, and every area with a 25 m pool wants to match itself with a country somewhere in the world, but we should create a clearing house so that the competition is proactive rather than destructive. Finally, the success of the games will be measured by the number of gold medals that our athletes win. Every nation has always done much better in the medal tables when it has hosted the games than when it has not. The target for what our athletes achieve in Beijing in 2008 is already pretty ambitious, and we hope that they do even better in 2012. As I said, though, the people who will succeed in 2012 might already be in the development programme. I agree with UK Sport and the British Olympic Association that we need stability in the funding that is made available. We want the four-year programme to 2008 to be extended to 2012, and funding to be increased to ensure that our children and youngsters are able to win gold. By making our young people winners, we will make sure that all of us are winners in 2012.