Devon Ability Games Inspire

Last Wednesday 170 young people from 15 Devon schools and assisted by 40 volunteers took part in the first North Devon Ability Games at the Tarka Tennis Centre in Barnstaple.

The children were aged between 10-16 and they had a mix of physical and mental abilities. They took part in six different sports - football, tennis, athletics, rowing, badminton, tennis and boccia - an adapted form of bowls. Staff from British Rowing and England Athletics were present to spot potential athletes and to encourage the youngsters to join their local sports clubs.

The Games were given a London 2012 Inspire Mark to show that they had been organised to inspire young people. On the Relays website you can see the photos from the day www.universitiessouthwest.ac.uk/relays

What I learnt was that:

• The main aim was to encourage these young people to take part in activities and for them to encourage others to get involved too
• A multi-sport event makes it far easier for youngsters to find out what sports they enjoy
• Ability sports have been inspired by successful athletes like David Weir and Dame Tanni Grey Thompson and local wheelchair badminton players the Devon Racqueteers
• Different equipment has made a huge difference in letting people with different abilities join in and take part.

I will remember the young lad who said he never did any sport, but he did play computer games. He turned out to be a demon in a racing wheelchair. I hope he continues.

S'miles Better

If you saw hundreds of people dressed in tartan running towards you what would you do? Run away? That's what I'd do.

I don't know what people at the Delhi Closing Ceremony thought, but I enjoyed Glasgow's short piece inviting people to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the city. It was full of energy; it showed lots of young and excited people smiling and happy and yes it was bagpipes and tartan, but that's what people identify with Scotland.

I find myself explaining to people that Baron de Coubertin, who revived the Olympics in the late nineteenth century, wanted to combine sport and culture. So today at the two ceremonies to open and close the Games they demonstrate the host's culture.

Some people believe the Olympics and other international events should be like school sports days, with all the emphasis on the sport and the winners. Today large sporting events are about entertainment as more people watch them on tv or on-line than will ever attend them.

World class events are also about politics. Both Australia and China made their point about what they saw as their place in the world at their Olympic ceremonies.

Yes, we want more people involved in sport, but an event with a global audience has huge economic potential for the local economy. Manufacturing, food, hospitality, tourism and the creative industries are just some of the sectors that can benefit.

Glasgow worked hard to be designated a European City of Culture, a City of Architecture and in 2014 it will be a host for the Commonwealth Games. The city has realised the economic value of these accolades in helping to change people's perceptions.

So, the tartan gauntlet is down for London and the UK in 2012. Will we meet the challenge?

Delivering winners again

I saw a large newspaper advert explaining the rationale behind this sponsorship. The Chief Executive of this Devon-based company wants to:

• Support athletes born or based in the Westcountry
• Get people in the Westcountry to learn more about these five athletes
• Encourage local people to get involved in London 2012 and make sure that there is a legacy
• Promote sport, exercise and healthy lifestyles.

Two of the five, Liam Tancock and Georgina Geikie are at the Commonwealth Games and knowing they are local does make a difference to me. I will look out for the pistol shooting results now.

Follow Team Gregory at www.gdl.uk.com

Olympian thoughts

Last week I heard three Olympians speaking at different events. George Weedon was a gymnast who took part in 1948 in London. Sharron Davies, the swimmer, competed in Olympics over three decades and Jo Pavey, a runner, who has been to three Olympic Games and hopes to compete in 2012.

Most of the talk was about the differences between then and now. Today the training and medical facilities, the physical and mental coaching and the numbers of elite athletes have changed completely since the last time the Games were held in London.

Nowadays sport is viewed as entertainment and many elite athletes are paid via the lottery to allow them to train full time. Athletes are interviewed by the media and some are household names. Until the 1990s UK athletes wanted to be the best in Britain. Today they want to be the best in the world.

What doesn't change is the need to train every day. To be able to overcome injuries and disappointments. To be willing to re-train and take part in another discipline as rules are altered by the sporting bodies or the IOC.

I can only admire their dedication and the sacrifices that they make as young people. Nor was it surprising to hear that neither woman is pushing their children to become elite athletes. They know how hard it is.

700 days to go

The Olympic Park is huge. Looking at the website, London 2012.com, just doesn't give an idea of the scale. The Park is the same size as Hyde Park, 50 hectares.

We took the free bus tour from Stratford. That helped me to understand LOCOG's vision of regeneration, encouraging more young people to get involved in sport and venues that can be used after the Games. Oh and exciting sports events.

London 2012 is using a world renowned sporting event to achieve the redevelopment of a grotty part of East London. Nor is it just the Park. It is the roads, the tubes, the railways and new stations. It is housing being developed and a shopping mall with John Lewis and M&S as flagship stores. It is cranes everywhere you look and the new stadium able to be seen from across London.

I was overwhelmed and proud. The site will look wonderful when all the building is completed, the trees and shrubs and environmental works in place and lots of people walking around and enjoying themselves.

On Thursday all the Relays staff are going to London to visit LOCOG in their offices at Canary Wharf. They will be speaking to us about volunteering and the Inspire programme.

Then on Friday we are taking the tour of the Olympic Park. Having watched some of the tv coverage in July and seen the photos on the London 2012 website I am really looking forward to seeing it for myself. Judging by the reactions from family and friends everyone is very jealous of me getting this opportunity to see the site.

So me, my passport and tube maps are off on a big adventure.

Pounds of sport

The value of sport to the UK economy in 2008 had grown to £17.38 billion with 441,000 jobs. The figures for the south west region are £1,606 million and 44,000 jobs, so roughly 10% of the total.

These financial exercises don't claim to be exact, but they do show trends and these figures demonstrate an increase in the spend and in the numbers of people employed.

A lot of the money is in the things surrounding sport, the clothes, equipment or going to events. The breakdown for the total expenditure showed that 22% was spent on subs and fees and 19% for clothing and footwear while 15% was for gambling and 10% for TV.

So at least 25% of the total is for watching sport, probably while wearing sports gear.