The recent Lords Committee Report on the Olympic Legacy "Keeping the Flame Alive" raises further questions as to why so little effect has occurred in athletics.

Athletics is the major and most inclusive of sport of the Olympic Games and its current state throughout Britain hinges around the continued failure of the Government's quangos, Sport England and UK Sport to have implemented an independent and on-going system of scrutiny and accountability ever since funding began in 1998 to properly evaluate how funding is being spent and what it actually achieves in benefit to the sport.

One of the main reasons is because the Sports Minister and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee continue to rely solely on whatever their quangos report, albeit unverified, and have continued to ignore - or at least act upon - statistically evidenced representations which prove and strongly contradict what the quangos claim for increased medal achievements at global events - Olympics and World Championships - and also the false and grossly misleading grass roots participation figures given and from which our elite have always emerged.

The promised athletics legacy from London 2012 has simply not happened ©Getty Images


For example, Sport England's "Active Peoples Survey" claims an average of 90,000 people at 16 year+ participating in track and field at least once per week on athletics tracks throughout the year. But a simple analysis of competition results shows less than 4,000 over 16 year olds actually competing regularly. And the drop off rate from the sport altogether between 16-25 is very alarming.

With 200 tracks available around the country Sport England's claimed 90,000 per week would mean an average 450 on each track at least once per week. A wholly ridiculous assertion.

UK Athletics, the body funded by UK Sport to develop our elite through its "no compromise" approach, has produced no improvement for all global medals since Atlanta 1996 - six medals - when they were unfunded through to London 2012 - six medals - yet after £300 million ($486 million/€359 million) in public and commercial funding UK Sport's original progressive target by 2012 was for 12 medals.

UK Athletics bureaucracy has now grown to become the largest national governing body for athletics in the world with over 140 employed in addition to their subsidiary, England Athletics with 80 employed, tasked to develop the grass roots.

Neither body was elected by the sport but imposed on the clubs by UK Sport and Sport England and are totally unaccountable to those they purport to represent. They have been set up as Private Limited Companies and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Regular competitive participation, particularly in track and field, continues to
decline ©AFP/Getty Images


Quite incredibly, UK Sport carries out no scrutiny of how funds are spent and what it achieves and specifically encourages UK Athletics - and all other funded National Governing Bodies (NGB) - to "self assess" relying wholly on what the NGB care to tell them which in turn is reported to the DCMS by UK Sport as factual.

Liz Nicholl, current chief executive of UK Sport, was previously called back by the Public Accounts Committee and reprimanded for presenting a highly misleading and inappropriate medal count from the last Olympic cycle.

Following the Olympics there was a huge wave of eager young kids, mainly from the lower half of the seven to 14-year-olds, wanting to do athletics and many clubs were inundated and most had to make waiting lists because they simply could not cope. But one year on interest has waned and the real problem for the clubs is the lack of under-20s and seniors and the lack of coaches, officials and team managers to cater even for them.

The promised legacy, so massively promoted in securing the Games that promised a whole new generation would be inspired to take up sport, has simply not happened. And ever since the Games, the Government Sports Minister and quangos claim huge success and continue to promote the falsity of "increased participation" - meaning any kind of physical activity once a week - when in reality regular competitive participation, particularly in track and field, continues to decline.

The full Lords Committee Report can be downloaded here.

John Bicourt is an English former record holder and represented Britain in the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. He has coached, advised and managed a number of Olympic and World Championship athletes from Britain, Australia, South African, Kenya and the United States, including medallists and world record holders. He is an elected officer of the Association of British Athletics Clubs.