By Tom Degun in Innsbruck

Colin Moynihan_giving_a_speechJanuary 21 - British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan (pictured) has said his organisation is happy to play a greater role in taking school sport in the UK forward in the future after claiming that current structures in place still have "a long way to go".


Last month, Sport England published participation figures showing a large decrease in the number of young people playing sport but the Coalition Government is hopeful that the new School Games will help stop the decline.

The School Games, set up by Cultural Secretary Jeremy Hunt, is due to debut this year with the finals of the event set to take place at the Olympic Park in May.

However, Moynihan feels that the event on its own will not provide enough support for the schools not involved in them and said that the BOA wants to help in addressing this issue.

"To me, the success of the London 2012 Games will be determined as much by the success of Team GB as it will be by the way that a true sports legacy touches the lives of young people across the length and breadth of the country," Moynihan told insidethegames here at the Winter Youth Olympics.

"The sports participation drop-off in recent years, despite the high levels of investment in it, is very disappointing and it must be reversed.

"I do think that the School Games are an important first step but we have a long way to go.

"We are talking just under 50 per cent of the schools involved in the School Games and I want 100 per cent of the schools involved.

"So there are steps in the right direction but they are steps along what will be a very long road.

"For our part, we have let the Government know that we are happy to work with them on taking competitive school sport forward in the future and we have the great advantage of accessing private sponsorship on a large scale.

"We think that could be a real help, in years to come, to competitive school sport and to the School Games."

Moynihan also confirmed that he and his organisation is still considering the option of setting-up their own schools event that could rival the School Games.

The idea was first expressed publically by Moynihan in a blog written for insidethegames last year when he expressed his disappointment that the School Games will not have any association with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"Regrettably, the new event will not have an Olympic association, as the Government has designed it in a manner that fails to meet the IOC requirements to protect an Olympic association and the BOA will follow the advice of the IOC in protecting the Olympic Movement against ambush marketing," he wrote.

"The President of the IOC has emphasised that the use of the 'Olympic brand' must not compromise neither the BOA's autonomy nor its ability to market the commercial rights for Team GB in the future, and we will work with the IOC to ensure their requests are met.

"To demonstrate our enthusiasm for this initiative, the BOA will evaluate establishing its own Commission on Youth and Sport for All which could review progress on Britain's Competitive School Sport Policy, its organisation, governance and value for money and against this background consider whether to launch a British Olympic Association School Games in 2013 and beyond.

"We will continue to work both within and outside Parliament on this, which goes to the heart of our Olympic Charter mandate."

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