London 2012 promised to deliver a great deal, both in sporting achievements and an enduring legacy to carry the spirit of the Olympics beyond the summer hype. This legacy has been talked about in numerous different ways, and this week Cambridgeshire County Council released a statement about how they were “working to develop a lasting legacy” that would benefit residents throughout the area.

The Council emphasised the successes of the British Olympic endeavour: from the athletes’ incredible demonstration of hard work, to the volunteers that enabled events to run smoothly, to the “public who became part of the spirit of London 2012”. It is these enthusiastic and engaged spectators, both at the stadium and those watching from afar, who can hopefully seek to benefit from the Olympic legacy.

On a local level, Cambridgeshire was praised by Councillor Martin Curtis, Lead Member for Olympic and Paralympic legacy at Cambridgeshire County Council, for grasping “the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented by the games”. Residents took part in the torch and lantern relays and the events themselves, and the county has whole-heartedly “enjoyed playing their role in Great Britain's glory at the greatest sporting event in the world”.

The need to maintain the momentum of this interest was addressed by the Councillor as he laid out plans for athletes, Torchbearers and Gamesmakers to be celebrated as they visit five schools across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough this week to talk to children. Members of the council also discussed a variety of initiatives, such as “cycling projects to establish Cambridge and the county's reputation”. The Council is clearly keen to emphasise that they are working to “ensure the legacy of the Olympics continues through all our actions in the months and years to come”.

This ambition is clearly a challenge to implement. The notion of legacy has been banded around so liberally that it has lost some of its drive and even diluted the Olympic spirit. There is evidence of people taking legacy into their own hands as membership of sport clubs is on the rise, more people are cycling to work and there is a heightened interest in world-class sport. But a lot of the talk about legacy is just that: all talk and no action. Even after reading ‘The Cambridge Olympic Plan’, I’m still none the wiser as to when we might actually physically see a solid example of Olympic legacy in our local community. 

The Cambridge Union Society hosted a panel of renowned Olympians this week, and they were asked about their views on London 2012’s legacy. Tim Baillie, winner of Team GB’s first gold medal this summer in C2 canoe slalom, highlighted that hosting the games had provided “a very rare resource” by building world-class sporting venues that open up participation to the public. Josie Pearson, 2012 Paralympic champion in F51 discus, believed London set a very high benchmark for changing preconceptions about Paralympic sport and showing that disabled athletes are “still elite athletes”. 

Dan Gordon, 2004 European Paralympic cycling champion for 1km Time Trial and Match Sprint, said he was taken aback by the interest in the London Paralympics and believed sport is a very powerful medium to build public spirit and unite people. However, as a now retired athlete who also lectures at Anglia Ruskin, Dan can take a step back from the Olympic buzz in order to express his concern about legacy being a “very woolly” idea. Government policy tends to sidestep around making concrete plans to pursue real aims, instead ambiguously promising, as Cambridge County Council has done, to “work hard with all our partners to make sure the enthusiasm of the summer does not die."

Waiting on the government and local councils to make good on these illusive promises may take some time, as the bureaucracy and need for funding holds back many initiatives. But it costs nothing to heed the Councillors advice that “the feelings and emotions we all went through during the spectacular summer of sport should never be forgotten”. Legacy is as much about what you can take from the London 2012 Olympics as it is what politicians can deliver.