Former Team GB Greg Whyte OBE on summer encouraging involvement in sport across UK

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 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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