COMMUNITY SPECIAL – iSportconnect members look back to London 2012

Exactly four years on from the opening ceremony of London 2012, the iSportconnect membership have been reflecting on the success and learning points taken away from the Games, with Rio just around the corner.

The fantastic turnout for the iSportconnect Directors’ Club – Olympic Special emphasised the nostalgia for the 2012 Games and the excitement as we head towards Rio.

One of the attendees at the event was Shiny Fang, Secretary General of Modern Pentathlon. She believes there was one key stand out from four years ago.

She wrote on the community: “Personally, I think the London Olympic Games were really friendly, maybe having a language advantage made things a lot easier.”

“Everyone in the city was volunteer, and we have retained long term relationships with our assistants and keep in touch even now!”

“Of course, we (UIPM) were able to turn those volunteers/assistants and spectators into fans of Modern Pentathlon, that might be the bigger legacy in terms of our sport and the organization, they are sending their thoughts to us from time to time on recent UIPM development, they follow us and that’s really good thing.”

Shiny’s highlights of the positives of the volunteering from 2012 was something Alex Shelley, CEO of World Squash was keen to agree with.

Squash is currently hoping to join the Olympic movement and Shelley was keeping a close eye on London as he will be doing when the Games kick-off in Rio.

“Away from the sports themselves, the volunteering has changed that landscape, as we have seen in following events.”

“Looking at the Games themselves, sport strives to improve its’ presentation and staging.”

“We look at what other sports do, as well as the innovators and leaders in our own. So, to have had the superb staging and presentation, broadcast, management and so on of 26 sports, some of which are outside our normal orbit, was a feast of stimulation.”

iSportconnect TV recently sat down with International Table Tennis Federation President Thomas Weikert, who went as far as calling the 2012 games ‘perfect’ at least from a logistical point of view.

“I did not expect such a big success for table tennis in London, but it was. The other things, the friendly volunteers, the venues, the traffic, all of it was perfect”

There were many personal stories and achievements across the 2012 Games, with federations and organisations competing to give their athletes the best possible opportunity to win.

Rob Fildes was President of Athletics Australia at the time of the 2012 Games and believes 2012 helped continue the development of some of their younger stars.

“The main point that I would make, is the size of the Australian track and field team, being 61 athletes, with a very large number going to their first Olympics.”

“The ground swell of outstanding young track and field athletes can in a large part be traced back to the commencement of the Australian Junior championships which Athletics Australia commenced in 2010. These Championships were recommenced, after a long break, to be independent of the All-Schools Championships to be held on an annual basis with around 2,000 of Australia’s outstanding young athletes competing, the best of whom compete at the World Youth Championships Under 18 and World Junior Championships Under 20.”

“Following the Rio Olympics we must encourage and support the successful young athletes who are most likely to do very well at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”

One iSportconnect member Lou Lauria, former Partnerhips Services Manager with the IOC, wanted to emphasise that while the 2012 Olympic Games were a phenomenal event, the legacy of the Paralympic Games could be the greatest thing to come from London.

He said: “The London 2012 Paralympic Games as they took the event to another level in every sense. There was a real opportunity here, given GB being the spiritual home of the Paralympic Movement, and LOCOG fully leveraged this to help differentiate London 2012 from other host cities.”

“The Olympic Games are very heavily leveraged across most areas and the opportunities for growth are somewhat limited. The Paralympic Games still provide room for real growth and London 2012 is the best example. The smart use of temporary venues in iconic city settings and the images they provided are a legacy that will live on. They were great Games.”

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READ our Special Report by Michael Pirrie featuring Baroness Tessa Jowell and Sir Keith Mills HERE.

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