Has always baffled me as to why Britain doesn't adopt a similar college sports model to that in the US. Have colleges which specialise in developing athletes in certain sports; attracting specialist funding both from private companies and central government. A bit like how certain universities are better for famous for certain subjects - the same should be developed for certain sports.
It's about pooling and focusing resources. If your funding is dispersed across a wider scope, then its impact isn't going to be that great. But bring it all together and suddenly you create a nucleus. From that, embryonic talent can be attracted to and nurtured into world class athletes. It's furthering the principle which has developed such dominance in cycling; amazing R&D using complex CFD modelling, which puts them miles ahead of the rest. Focused knowledge, expertise and experience.
The UK seems to have these athletics clubs, but - as far as I'm aware - there isn't an academy or anything which promising athletes can go to, in order to progress up to that world-class level? Same with swimming: lots of swimming clubs, but no national centre of excellence? I'm guessing the same is probably true of gymnastics.
Isn't the UK the most obese country in Europe or something? That's not something to be proud about - it's embarrassing, and there should be some serious focus applied in order to reverse that trend. Sport is a massive motivator, so we don't wanna be hearing about the stories of funding being cut - completely counterintuitive, if you want to be competitive in the Olympics in 8, 12 & 16yrs time.
The 'legacy' HAS to be more, than just merely throwing £9Bn at some brick part of East London. The true legacy should be about not only inspiring youth athletes to become the gold medallists of tomorrow, but also ensuring that you actually have the facilities, programme and attitudes in place to actually do those aspirations justice.
