Impacts and legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has released a report on the impact and legacy of London 2012. In particular this report assesses baseline markers and conducts counterfactual evaluation for the four main target areas of the Olympic legacy. These include:

• Sport: harnessing the UK’s passion for sport to increase school-based and grass roots participation in competitive sport and to encourage the whole population to be more physically active
• Economy: exploiting to the full the opportunities for economic growth offered by hosting the Games, particularly with reference to inward investment and tourism
• Community Engagement: promoting community engagement and participation in voluntary work across all groups in society through the Games
• East London regeneration: ensuring that the Olympic Park can be developed after the Games as one of the principal drivers of regeneration in East London, with a particular focus on the high-tech and creative industries.

The baseline year was defined as 2003, the year when the UK Government first committed support to London’s bid for the 2012 Games. The counterfactuals set out the extent to which policy, legacy activities and outcomes would have occurred in the absence of the Games and/or legacy interventions.
Key findings include:

• There has been an increase in people engaging in moderate intensity sport since baseline. This increase may be more rapid due to the Games.
• The progress in elite sport policy and delivery has been much quickened by the Games.
• Significant international development work around sport would have been unlikely to have taken place without the catalyst of the 2012 Games, eg, International Inspiration, a programme aimed at inspiring 12 million children in 20 countries to become involved in sport.
• Expansion of the Tourism industry would have been much slower and marketing campaigns would have been on a much smaller scale.

Download: Impacts and legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

Image: London 2012