The first year of UK Anti-Doping has seen significant improvement in the UK's ability to tackle doping in sport.

We have worked in collaboration with partners, including National Governing Bodies, to deliver anti-doping programmes across more than 40 sports and have reached thousands of athletes through our wide-reaching 100% me education programme. Our intelligence function is fully operational, gaining momentum and we are sharing information with law enforcement.

With our developing relationship with law enforcement we are learning new ways in which to address the threat of doping. We are putting in place a system that is flexible, and are changing the way we implement our programmes to give us the best chance of successfully prevent doping, deterring those who might be tempted and ultimately catching those that cross the line.

We are doing things differently and athletes, support personnel and sports should expect our response in 2011 to be similarly unpredictable.

In 2011, we will also need to ensure that all sports in the UK are operating consistently and are compliant with the National Anti-Doping Policy, no matter how big or small. It is our responsibility to ensure the ongoing commitment from government offers value for money and delivers a service to the tax payer that meets government anti-doping policy.

However, the fight against doping cannot be won at a local level but needs to be tackled with a global commitment. We continue to support the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in establishing and implementing worldwide standards to help all nations and sports and have UK representatives on a number of Committees of WADA, including Richard Budget who will chair the Prohibited List Committee and David Millar who has been re-elected on to the Athlete Committee. We will continue to push to ensure our views are heard both through our European forums and directly to WADA.

A worldwide level playing field can only be achieved by harmonisation, which in turn can only be achieved through compromise at the international level. We must never set the bar too low. 

As the cheats, and those around them, become increasingly sophisticated we too must adapt and respond to protect the rights of clean athletes. Our clean athletes expect nothing else.

At a recent meeting of the UK Anti-Doping Athlete Committee the issue of a true global level playing field was raised and it is clear we are not there yet. As we move into a period of review of the World Anti-Doping Code next year, we need to ensure that the framework for anti-doping is simple enough for clean athletes to understand and commit to, sophisticated enough to deter and catch cheats and most importantly is able to be implemented consistently worldwide.

We have seen in the US and also here in the UK how going beyond the anti-doping rules established by WADA creates confusion and impedes our role. The World Anti-Doping Code, agreed at an international level, encourages athletes to provide substantial assistance which can be grounds for a reduction in the sanction period.

If, as is the case with the eligibility rules of the International Olympic Committee and here in the UK the British Olympic Association, we remove all incentives for athletes to share their stories and information with us, then we will continue to struggle to catch those who are supplying performance enhancing substances and often operate on the edges of sport with relative impunity.

It is clear that this is a hard message to get across and to agree on, largely because these eligibility rules are easy to defend, but if we cannot be seen to be working with all athletes, then what hope do we have in really getting to the heart of the doping problem and to those that traffic and supply.

The fight against doping now more than ever requires a mature and coordinated effort to work together. UK Anti-Doping has firmly established itself in our first year and 2011 offers the chance to continue to play a lead role at home and overseas to better protect the rights of athletes to compete in doping-free sport.

Andy Parkinson is the chief executive of UK Anti-Doping. To find out more about the work of UKAD click here

It is no great secret that French is the official language of the Olympic Movement. After all ,Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the man who revived them was a Frenchman and a proud one at that. The 1894 meeting at which the revival of the Olympic Games was agreed took place in Paris.

Nor will it come as any surprise to anyone who has ever attended an Olympic Games that signs appear in French as well as English and that announcements are made in both languages throughout the Games. Indeed only last week, the London Organising Committee were advertising for stadium announcers who spoke French.

The earliest bulletins issued by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were all in French and The Olympic Charter, the rule book by which the Games are governed notes that "in case of divergence between the French and English, the French shall prevail."

No-one should be unduly concerned by this. From the outset, the British and French had worked closely together. Coubertin took much of his Olympic inspiration from visits to Britain. He was greatly influenced by the work of Dr William Penny Brookes who established Olympian Games and promoted sport and well being at Much Wenlock in Shropshire. Coubertin admitted as much

"If the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survives today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr William Penny Brookes."

Coubertin's great nephew Antoine De Navacelle said recently: "Between London England, and Paris, France, the Olympic Games are very much  a common story because of Pierre de Coubertin."

He said "cooperation between France and the UK on Olympic matters is very important."

In fact, were it not for the "Entente Cordiale" with France, the 1908 Olympic Games in London might never have happened. Originally destined for Rome, London stepped in at short notice when the Italians pulled out in the wake of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It was possible only because an Anglo-French Exhibition was planned in the West of London for the summer of 1908 and exhibition organisers agreed to pay for the construction of the stadium with no charge made to the Olympic Organising Committee. Without this financial break the first London Games would not have been viable.

The secretary of the British Olympic Association at the time was the Reverend Robert Stuart de Courcy Laffan, one time headmaster of Cheltenham College. A decade earlier he had addressed the IOC congress in Le Havre.

"Everyone was most astonished to hear the British delegate improvise a talk in perfectly styled French," wrote Coubertin who promptly invited the Reverend to become a member of the IOC.

A century later Sir Craig Reedie, now an IOC Executive Board member, also addressed the IOC in French as London bid for the 2012 Games.

In practice, the majority of the business of the Olympic Movement is conducted in English and although you'll hear announcements made in French notably at the opening ceremonies and when medals are presented, whisper it quietly, too much in French would not do for the American television audiences.

English will prevail at the Opening ceremony. Once Greece have entered, all the other countries will march in alphabetical order according to their names in English.

When IOC President Rogge invites the Queen to open the Games, she will do so only in English, although she did make the declaration at the Montreal Games of 1976 in French and English in deference to the two linguistic communities in Canada.

The IOC President himself will alternate between both languages during his speeches, and it is here that things do not always go according to plan.

At the Closing Ceremony in Beijing, he spoke first in English but then switched to French. So the words which had the most resonance for a London audience, "I call upon the youth of the world to come together in London", were spoken not in English but French.

A mistake? It certainly looked that way, although the IOC press department insisted this was because the French language took precedence. If this were the case, why did Rogge not deliver this part of the speech in French in Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin or Vancouver? In each case he made the call in English.

London famously beat Paris in the final vote to get the 2012 Games. Rather tactlessly the organisers played some music in the auditorium in Singapore immediately the result was announced. It was from Olivier's classic film Henry V which tells of the victory at Agincourt!

Initial disappointment across the channel has turned to realisation that these might be golden Games for the France as well.

"All the French athletes believe that having an Olympic Games in London will be exactly the same as having it in Paris," said French NOC chief Denis Masseglia

They will of course be able to read the signs.

Philip Barker, a freelance journalist, has been on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History and is credited with having transformed the publication into one of the most respected historical publications on the history of the Olympic Games. He is also an expert on Olympic Music, a field which is not generally well known.

The latest poll to determine the UK public's all-time favourite TV sports moments – put together by FindMeTV.com and OnePoll – has come up with a number one that is unlikely to blow anyone away with amazement.

Yes, the top moment for all those avid TV viewers was England's World Cup victory in 1966. It doesn't look like being superseded by another England World Cup victory anytime soon. And certainly not another home victory.

One of the saddest things about the political brutality in Zurich which confirmed that England will not be hosting a World Cup until 2030 at the earliest, and most probably not then either, was the plaintive tone of the 2018 bid's honourable and energetic chief executive, Andy Anson.

As he reflected in the aftermath of defeat upon the FIFA candidates who had looked into his face, shaken him by the hand, promised him their vote, and then not given it, he seemed almost unable to take in the fact that he had been wilfully misled.

Two votes, one of which was an English vote, represented the kind of shoeing that Manchester's gallant and doomed bids for the 1996 and 2000 Olympics received – despite Bobby Charlton covering tirelessly in the political midfield.

The chairman of both those bids, Sir Bob Scott, was similarly flabbergasted when the apparent promises of scores of International Olympic Committee members failed to materialise into votes. Manchester exited the voting for the 1996 Games in the second round with five votes - at least they showed Belgrade where to get off! – and at the deliberations for the 2000 Games, which took place in Monte Carlo in 1993, they lasted three rounds, with votes of, respectively, 11, 13, and 11.

A year before Seb Coe and Co pulled off their magnificent away victory in Singapore, Scott publicly cast doubt on London's chances of gaining the 2012 Games, suggesting that Paris were clear favourites with the IOC, and adding: "We're not a deeply popular nation."

Scott may have been wrong on the specifics of the 2012 Games, but in the light of what happened earlier this month it is hard to argue with his basic surmise.

Interestingly, in the TV sports poll, the favourite moment for viewers in Scotland and Northern Ireland was 1986 World Cup match in which Argentina, the eventual winners, beat England 2-1 thanks to a beast of a goal followed by a beauty of a goal from Maradona. Fancy all those Scots and Northern Irish picking an occasion where the England football team were, respectively, robbed and humiliated. But that's the beauty of sport for you.



The reaction of Scotland and Manchester United forward Denis Law to the news that England had won the 1966 World Cup stands as a classic in the genre. Havving tried to get away from the hullabaloo by playing golf, he threw his clubs away in disgust when her heard the result.

Forty four years later, on the eve of FIFA's World Cup vote, Law was asked if he was backing England's bid. "I'm a Scotland fan," he responded. "So no way."

The same basic principle seemed to be holding true in the case of the poll's eighth favourite moment, the England cricket team's victory in the Ashes series of 2005. That triumph is, statistically, the least favoured by Northern Irish and Scottish voters, with the majority of votes coming from men over 55 living in the Midlands and South-west. Who would have thought it?

Then again, there was a big Northern Irish vote for the sporting achievement which earned tenth place in the rankings, Manchester United's last minute victory over Bayern Munich n the 1999 Champions League final. Maybe there was something of a George Best legacy operating there...

The Scots and Northern Irish were also very keen in the item which stands at seventh in the list, Zinedine Zidane getting sent off in the 2006 World Cup final for headbutting Marco Materazzi for an apparent insult. In terms of age groups, this was also the favourite with 18-24 year olds – which sounds, on the face of it, rather depressing.

The only top ten place for tennis is Boris Becker's 1985 Wimbledon victory at the age of 17, a particular favourite with southerners and those over 45, which occupies ninth place.

Predictably, Kelly Holmes's Olympic victories over 800 and 1500 metres at the 2004 Athens Games were the favourite memory for women involved in the poll. Unpredictably, Dame Kelly's double also earned high approval ratings in Wales and Scotland.

Also ranking highly with women was Paul Gascoigne's breakdown into tears after the booking in the 1990 World Cup semi-final which would have meant he missed the final – had England qualified. All that emotion flying about, no doubt – at least, that's what the pollsters believe. It's in at number five, two places behind the last minute free kick goal by David Beckham against Greece in 2001 which earned England a place at the following year's World Cup finals.

Beckham's glory moment is also the favourite for those aged between 25 and 34.

England's Rugby Union World Cup victory in 2003 ranks in second place. All areas of the country go for the match against Australia which turned upon Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal 26 seconds from the end. Apart from Wales and Scotland, that is.

But even Jonny, Martin, Matt and Co can't displace their World Cup footballing counterparts. The Beatles may not have been able to get near the top of the singles chart when their music was recently made available on iTunes, but the Boys of '66 still seem to have All Our Loving.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames

There aren't many sports where we can claim to be beating the originators at their own game, but the Koreans are now looking over their shoulder at the phenomenal achievements of a handful of young Brits who are living for kicks.

Taekwondo is the ancient martial art they invented (it translates from the Korean as "the way of the hand and the foot"), and we are getting pretty damn good at it.

An amalgam of kick boxing, kung fu and karate, it has its own distinctive pattern of controlled violence, and has been growing in Britain since a girl from Doncaster, Sarah Stevenson, started getting the better of the Asians. Fourth at the Sydney Olympics, she went on to become world and European champion and an Olympic bronze medallist in Beijing.

The newly-wed Stevenson, now 27, still has outstanding Olympic ambitions but there is a new kid on the mat. Jade Jones may sound like an X Factor wannabe but the 17-year-old from Flint in north Wales is actually a pocket rocket who punches harder than most female boxers and kicks like a mule.

These attributes have brought her a junior world championship silver medal, a bronze in the European seniors and, in Singapore three months ago (where she beat a Korean), Britain's first gold medal in the Youth Olympics. Now she has been shortlisted for this weekend's BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Stevenson and Jones (pictured) are by no means alone is making taekwondo one of the biggest success stories of British sport. Aaron Cook, 19, has won the European senior title, narrowly missed out on a medal in Beijing and last year knocked out the five-times world champion Steven Lopez. He took silver in last month's French Open, where another 19-year-old, Bianca Walkden, won gold.

So what is the secret of British taekwondo's emergence as a world power. One reason is that the enlightened use of funding has seen top-quality coaching brought in from overseas, notably one of the sport's greatest gurus, Professor Moon Won Jae, poached from Korea where he was the Angelo Dundee of his sport, an ace mentor and motivator who tutored 24 world champions and five Olympic gold medallists.


He has joined Nelson Miller, who comes from Cuba, via making Holland one of Europe's top nations, and two of the best English coaches, Steve Jennings (Stevenson's new husband) and Paul Green.

Another is that GB's performance director Gary Hall sought the advice of his renowned opposite number in cycling, Dave Brailsford, based just across the road from taekwondo's own Manchester HQ.

"Our programme very much follows that of cycling," says 47-year-old Hall, himself a former British international. "Dave has been something of a mentor. We are treading new ground all the time, the ground that cycling trod years ago, and Dave has always been willing to give us the benefit of his advice.

"The sport has moved on significantly over the last two years and this year has been the best yet. We've collected more golds than ever before and the players, working within the elite academy supported by UK Sport and Manchester City Council, are definitely going in the right direction.

"We have the best quality coaches and also the sports scientists and psychologists from the English Institute of Sport.

"We are currently in the process of moving headquarters to a new school academy in Manchester which will be a British first for an elite sports programme. We will also be moving to a new gym with the support of Sport England."

Taekwondo may require the deft footwork of the tango but it is the only Olympic sport where a kick in the teeth is not only permitted but positively encouraged, with a hit to the head worth double one to the torso.

"Knocking people out is part of the sport," says Jones. "After all, they are trying to do the same to me. When we went to Korea for a training camp I was beating a lot of the Koreans but I know there's a long way to go yet. The sport is my life now, I just love it."

"What Jade has done this year is just phenomenal," says Hall. "She's one of these characters who is never satisfied and always wants more – she is absolutely driven to be the best. She may be slightly built and is in a weight category [under 57kg] that is dominated by the East, but she has been to Singapore and Korea and beaten them in their own back yard. She has a very special ability and a great future ahead of her."


This is echoed by Stevenson (pictured). "Jade Jones has surprised me a lot. She has come a long way in a short time and to do so well at senior level at such a young age is amazing. She reminds me of myself when I was her age. She is quite slim but a real powerhouse and quite flexible. Because she's so light she can get her legs up to the head very easily, which is beneficial as these days you get more points for kicking to the head.

"She is getting much better now at controlling her nerves but even when she is nervous she manages to get in there and do it, just as I did. If I could do it at that age (17) without a lot of help, imagine what she can achieve with all the expert coaching and assistance physically and mentally that's available to us now. She will have a great future.

"Taekwondo has come on tremendously in this country and should really be challenging for those Olympic medals in 2012. But nothing is certain because it is not one of those sports where you can say the best is always going to win. A lucky kick to the head can change everything."

Jones says she realises the road to 2012 will be intensely competitive. "There are only two places available for girls and three of us are in contention – Sarah, Bianca and myself. I really look up to Sarah because she was the first British girl to win an Olympic medal. She has been very helpful to me and actually coached me in the junior worlds in Mexico. She was a great inspiration. I'd love to go on and do what she has done.

"I know I am quite small and I have to meet quite a lot of taller opponents but in this sport it doesn't matter about size if you have the ability to win."

You can be sure that Jones will be putting her best foot forward. And upwards. After all, a medal of any colour in London will be better than a kick in the teeth.

Talking of which, I gather there are quite a few head teachers would like to give me a good kicking. One even invited me to meet him in his study! Seems I stirred up a hornets' nest with my comments about the Government cuts to school sports funding.

Apologies again for neglecting to mention that the letter in The Times I quoted was from Barking Abbey School's former head of some years ago, not the current head.

Baroness Campbell (chair of UK Sport and the Youth Sports Trust) also tells me that the YST - whose future in under threat following education secretary Michael Gove's decision to end the ring-fencing of £162 million ($260 million) cash for schools sport - do not act as middle man in the distribution for School Sports Partnership projects.

Fair enough - I'll write out my lines while maintaining my view that worthy as it is, sport's funding, whether for schools, the community or the elite, should not be sacrosanct when virtually all aspects of society are taking a financial hit.

And I predict that while there will be no complete U-turn from the Government, Gove, who apparently acted without proper consultation with relevant parties, will be made to offer some sort of compromise following the mass protests. If not they should set our taekwondo toughies on him.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

When I originally stopped boxing many years ago, I became a boxing coach, which seemed a natural move and one I enjoyed.

But soon after, I went into flying in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and that prevented me being able to be at the gym regularly. I wanted to remain involved with my beloved sport of boxing because it had given me so much in my life and it is such an exciting sport.

Therefore, after speaking to someone at a boxing tournament, officiating seemed a good alternative way to be involved and the rest, as they say, is history.

Refereeing and work in the RAF can be difficult to combine as we never know what activity is going to happen next, but refereeing the new amateur global boxing tournament World Series of Boxing (WSB) has really helped my being the squadron commander and the boss!

But seriously, I am lucky to have a really great team of officers working for me at the RAF and we all share and plan our time carefully so it works out well.

One of the most important aspects for all referees in the WSB has been adapting from International Boxing Federation (AIBA) competitions. For those of us who were used to the old amateur boxing scoring system, the concept may not be as difficult to adjust to WSB scoring, although a boxer dominating the opponent draws value in the score of a round because it is like professional boxing.

I think those who enjoy and follow professional boxing will understand and adapt more easily but in truth, it is not too much of a problem when you remain alive to the fact it is different, like professional boxing.

The overriding priority of the WSB is the safety of the boxers, which was addressed at a special course for future WSB referees and judges held in Istanbul over the summer. Some things are exactly the same and safety of the boxers is the most important focus.

We have an additional wish in WSB to ensure that the bout can flow and not be disturbed. For very minor infringements we encourage the boxers without stopping the bout through verbally telling them, in very simple terms, where they need to refrain from infringements.



We can also touch the boxers where necessary to ensure they break more quickly or to recover similar situations. The timekeeper's clock doesn't stop when the referee shouts "stop", only the boxers do, so this is why WSB may seem less intrusive or more relaxed.

But it's just because it is different - if we do need to stop the bout we call a 'time-out' and give the hand signal to the timekeeper: for example if a boxer's boot laces need to be re-tied.

The first bouts I refereed for the WSB were at the encounter between Paris United and the Moscow Kremlin Bears and, ironically, the most memorable bout I officiated to date was actually in Moscow when a young Ricky Hatton (the light welterweight world champion) was fighting.

He literally fired his continuous shots from the first bell like they were bullets from a machine gun. I had to end the bout early but the Russians were great sports and believed it to be the right thing for their boxer - they knew Hatton was a very powerful young amateur as well as a future professional world champion. I think Hatton would have been very good in the WSB.

It is an extremely exciting initiative and will likely have a positive effect not just on those boxers involved but also on AIBA boxing - perhaps for both increasing external interest in boxing and possibly benefiting how we consider our future practices.

While the duration and the tone of the boxing in WSB are different, so are several of the rules, so we all keep re-reading and re-programming ourselves prior to all tournaments because our responses and knowledge of acting upon the regulations has to be instinctive and automatic.

Ray Morley from Liverpool has been a top amateur boxing referee for 15 years. He is one of England's few 3-star AIBA referees - the highest level attainable – and was selected to officiate at this year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi. He has also been in the Royal Air Force since 1979 and is now Officer Commanding Operations Squadron at RAF Lyneham where he is responsible for the coordination, direction and support of military and civilian flying along with all flight safety and contingency planning

As a recreational sportsman and an internationally successful athlete, I have always preferred training when I'm surrounded by nature.

An outdoor athlete has some incredibly strong experiences and this creates a very close and intimate relationship with their surroundings over the years. You get to know nature as a perfect training site, and as a livelihood - as a spot of beauty and regeneration as well as a source of energy.

I was born, I grew up and I still live on a farm in a hamlet near the Alps. My first experience with nature dates back to my first attempts at walking on my own two feet.

Spending time with my granddad in the forest, being in the fields with my dad or learning to ski behind my neighbour's house are unforgettable memories directly linked to nature.

Further sport experiences in the course of my life exposed me to nature in all its wonderful diversity. This is how nature became such an important part of my life.

Athlete, farmer or tourist - we all rely upon nature in general and, in my case, the Alps in particular. Different groups of people "use" nature in different ways. But to make sure its beauty and its bounty are maintained, we should always work in harmony with it.

That applies to sport in particular, since outdoor sport relies on nature completely. Sport needs to be enjoyed sustainably, with an awareness of the role the natural world plays in all our lives.

In recent years a lot has already changed in the field of sport. Past experiences are incorporated very constructively in today's sports – especially when it comes to the construction of new sports venues.

The Munich 2018 bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games is a good example of this new way of thinking in the world of sport. I was directly involved in the planning of the sports venues for Munich 2018.

Therefore, I am well placed to verify that incursions into the natural environment are to be carried out only if absolutely necessary and only if they comply with the bid's rigorous ecological standards.

The bid committee rejects new venues if they offer no long-term benefit, in order to minimise the impact on the environment. The result is an innovative environmental concept with athletes and nature at its core.

Modern environmental protection should not mean the curtailment of outdoor sports. It should mean enjoying sport in harmony with nature. In Munich's green bid concept, forest clearance would be minimised, artificial snow would be used sparingly and changes to the profile of the landscape would only be considered if they offer sustainable benefits.

These are the challenges the world of sport faces today. Having worked with Munich 2018, I can safely say that those challenges are faced and overcome with dedication and professionalism.

That makes me a big supporter of the bid.

Martin Braxenthaler, the legendary monoskier from Germany, is one of the greatest Winter Paralympians of all time having won 15 Paralympic gold medals, including 13 golds, across four Paralympic Games. Braxenthaler also won the 2007 Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson with a Disability of the Year.

The uninformed, largely bigoted vitriol being aimed at Qatar after they were awarded the World Cup 2022 would it appear, be for no other reason than they had a successful bid.

I should declare in advance that I am a "fan" of many of the Gulf nations having worked in and visited a number of them, including Qatar.

Legacy is important to FIFA, something we have largely ignored in England when reacting to the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Qatar understands legacy. To my knowledge it is the only nation on the planet where every single school child has the opportunity to be Talent ID'd. And not just once but twice; the first time at nine years of age and then again at 13/14. That is Talent ID for a range of sports not just football.

Qatar has also invested heavily in building a sporting infrastructure. The 2006 Doha Asian Games were a huge success, as were the 2010 IAAF Indoor World Athletics Championships both taking place in world-class facilities. Top flight golf, sailing, tennis, gymnastics and more all visit Qatar on a regular basis.

Below the top-level, Doha boasts the Aspire Academy where children gain a top-level education alongside instruction and coaching in a range of sports from leading coaches. Aspire boasts amazing facilities including a full size, temperature controlled, indoor football pitch in a vast sports complex which has to be seen to be believed.

The Academy also works with the broader community in developing sport in Qatar including running after school centres where primary school aged children learn physical literacy, something, as I recently blogged, our own education system still does not offer.

One of the fingers pointed at Qatar's winning bid for 2022 has been that the summer temperatures will be too high to play football. Certainly 40-50 degrees is normal but there is already talk of the new stadia being air conditioned to control temperatures for players.

From the Qatari bid document: "Each of the five stadiums will harness the power of the suns rays to provide a cool environment for players and fans by converting solar energy into electricity that will then be used to cool both fans and players at the stadiums. When games are not taking place, the solar installations at the stadia will export energy onto the power grid. During matches, the stadia will draw energy from the grid. This is the basis for the stadiums' carbon-neutrality. Along with the stadiums, we plan to make the cooling technologies we've developed available to other countries in hot climates, so that they too can host major sporting events."

Now that is legacy! And don't bet against it happening, Qatar along with other Gulf states has a "can do" attitude when it comes to solving problems, one has only to look at amazing engineering feats such as the Palm and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Another one of the uninformed accusations aimed at Qatar has been that women fans from around the world will have to "cover up". The IAAF faced this question when first taking Grand Prix athletics - now the Diamond League - to Doha in 1997. Sensible discussion led to women being permitted to compete initially with arms and legs covered but in recent years in "normal"
kit.



Women play an important part in Qatari life managing banks, working as doctors, teaching children and more. That said, Qatar is, despite its wealth, a relatively emerging nation and equality still has some way to go but it is nowhere near as bad as is being portrayed.

Another favourite of the bigots is the now rather tedious fear of all that is Islam. At its heart Islam is a religion of peace which has had its teachings abused and mistaught in some parts of the world, much as Christianity has too. Visitors to Qatar can go about their day-to-day lives without fear of abduction or bombing or shooting, Doha is not Kabul in fact it was the sight of the main allied HQ during the Iraq war.

Under the teachings of Islam use of alcohol is frowned upon and another of the crass statements I have heard is that fans won't be able to get a beer. Well, I had no problem getting an alcoholic drink while I was there for while it is true there are no pubs all of the western hotels have at least one bar open to the general public.

Furthermore the Qatar bid document stated that fan-zones serving alcohol will be set up for the tournament. The Qataris won't however tolerate drunkenness in the streets or drunk and disorderly behaviour, why should they? Should hosting the World Cup finals mean the host has to accept the sort of idiocy all too frequently seen in English towns and cities every Saturday night?

Finally, and laughably, one pundit even questioned how such a small country should be allowed to host the World Cup! Why not? If only from a fans perspective this will surely make getting between games/venues far easier as oppose to, for example, the US who have led much of the finger-pointing outside England.

My own experience of working in, living in and of visiting the Gulf has me looking forward to 2022 with great anticipation. As the Qatari bid's Strapline said; "Expect amazing!"

Jim Cowan is a former athlete, coach, event organiser and sports development specialist who is the founder of Cowan Global, a company specialising in consultancy, events and education and training. For more details click here

Could an athlete from Olympic sport continue the decade-long tradition of winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in an Olympic year?

A quick look down the list of winners over the past decade shows that an Olympic year has always resulted in an athlete from an Olympic sport being crowned with the prestigious BBC award: Redgrave (2000), Radcliffe (2002), Holmes (2004), Phillips (2006) and Hoy (2008).

Four Olympic athletes have been nominated to the 10-strong shortlist this year: Amy Williams (skeleton), Jessica Ennis (athletics), Tom Daley (diving) and Mark Cavendish (cycling).

There can be no doubt Amy Williams inspired the nation back in February when she became Team GB's first individual-sport Winter Olympic Champion for 30 years with victory in the skeleton - a very special achievement.

As Chef de Mission I was privileged to be trackside at the Whistler Sliding Centre to witness Amy's incredible performance and it goes down as one of the most memorable moments of my life.

World heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis is on the shortlist for the second year running, having enjoyed another fantastic year during which she claimed the European heptathlon title and the world indoor pentathlon crown.

A recent survey for the National Lottery revealed she will complete around 10,000 hours of training in the four-year run-up to London 2012 – an amazing level of effort and dedication.

Ennis has already received one well-deserved accolade this month as she and Mo Farah were voted Athletes of the Year by the British Athletics Writers Association.

Joining the Olympic line up is diver Tom Daley, who added double gold at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi to his previous World and European titles, and Mark Cavendish, who excelled once again in 2010, winning five stages of the Tour de France, finishing second overall on points and claiming the Green Jersey in the Tour of Spain.

The fact that four of the 10 shortlisted athletes are from Olympic sports says something very powerful about the prominence of Olympic sport in the UK. In fact, if you look at the shortlists for the last three years, Olympic athletes account for 17 of the 30 nominees – a reflection of the high level of esteem and respect we have for our Olympic athletes in the UK.

I'm also delighted to see that all 10 of the athletes in contention for the Young Sports Personality of the Year award are representatives of Olympic and Paralympic sport, demonstrating the wealth of exciting potential waiting in the wings for Team GB and ParalympicsGB in years to come.

I was particularly pleased that three members of Team GB's successful Youth Olympic Games contingent made the shortlist, including gold medallists Jade Jones (taekwondo) and Sam Oldham (gymnastics) alongside the remarkable Tom Daley, who is aiming to win this award for the third time.

We are all looking forward to another night of spectacular entertainment from the BBC, whether you're in the audience in Birmingham or on the sofa watching the TV.

We're all in for another fantastic review of British sport to conclude what has been an incredible decade for British Olympic sport in particular.

Andy Hunt is the chief executive of the British Olympic Association and Team GB Chef de Mission for London 2012

I say chaps, there's a hell of a punch-up going on in the playground. That nasty school bully Michael Gove has taken the ball away and won't let the other kids play with it.

At least, that's what many teachers are saying. They are also suggesting there'll be no legacy left for the class of 2012 when the Olympics are done and dusted, and that we'll end up in the next decade with a generation Billy Bunters rather than Tom Daleys.

It is all very vexing. Why has the Education Secretary - who certainly doesn't looks the sort the sporty type - put the boot in to the schools sports programme by no longer ring-fencing the Exchequer's contribution? That's the £162 million question.

"We can't let Gove kill school sport," screamed one columnist this week while another called for pupils - and teachers - to start a resistance movement, presumably by marching on Downing Street. As if we hadn't had enough of student demos protesting against Coalition cuts.

Actually, the funding has not been cut, just radically re-arranged by Gove who wants head teachers to decide for themselves how the money should be allocated. It will be up to them to choose whether to continue to use it to bring in sports coaches or improve sports facilities. Or channel it elsewhere.

The Government's action, we are told, is not simply to save money but because it believes there is insufficient competitive sport in schools. So to this end they are to introduce a "Schools Olympics" (though because of IOC regulations they may have to call it something else) which will supplant the present UK School Games.

And there's the rub. The UK School Games were the baby of the last administration and have been orchestrated by the Youth Sports Trust, who look set to be the big losers in all this as it seems to challenge their raison d'etre.

For effectively what Gove is doing is emasculating the YST, who act as middle man in the distribution of funds. Instead the money will go directly to the schools thus avoiding a slab of administrative costs.

A casualty will be the Schools Partnership programme across 450 schools which employs several thousand coaches and games organisers, most I'm told on upwards of £40,000 a year who run PE classes where there are no trained staff, and co-ordinate competitions and events. Will they - and the YST - become redundant?

There is a feeling that the present Government view the YST as a left-leaning quango chaired, as is UK Sport, by Baroness Sue Campbell, know to have Labour sympathies though she sits as a cross bencher in the House of Lords.

The hit on the YST is rather ironic as it was under the Labour administration (and no political axe grinding here as I voted for them) that the Panathlon, a brilliant and popular event designed largely for inner city schools where sports facilities were sparse, was ruthlessly kicked into touch for political expediency with the advent of the UK Games, all the quangos, UK Sport, Sport England and the YST, declining the relatively meagre financial assistance that would have kept it alive.



It has been suggested to me that Gove has acted out of political spite. This I doubt. The Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, who has shown himself to be a fair-minded chap and who Gove surely consulted, would not be party to anything like that.

I find myself torn on the issue. While I understand why some teachers are getting hot under their mortar boards I also see no reason why sport, whether at schools, community or elite level, should be exempt from the cost-cutting needed to get the economy up and running again. We are all in this together, having to bite the same bullet.

It should also be noted that not every head teacher in the land is spitting blood over Gove's Armageddon. There have been several supportive letters in the broadsheets, one of particular interest from the former head of Barking Abbey School - a dedicated sports college not that far from London's Olympic heartland - claiming that only 25 per cent, or less, of young people are doing competitive sport now despite the heavy investment of the previous Government, and that "most schools don't do any competitive sport".

I also hear of situations where pupils have been steered away from mainstream competitive sport and encouraged to pursue activities like street dancing and cheerleading, which presumably come out of the "ring-fenced" sports cash.

This is a debate which will not go away. The boxing gold medallist from Beijing, James DeGale, is the latest of 75 Olympians to put their names to a letter requesting a meeting with David Cameron to try and get the funding restored in its original form. "How can they even contemplate cutting sport," he asks. "It's baffling. If there had been more sport at my school I'd probably have stayed on and studied a bit more."

You could argue that DeGale hasn't done too badly for someone who came from a school with limited sports resources.

And now we even have Canada's Olympics chief putting in his two cents' worth. M Jean Dupre has written to Gove taking a swipe at the planned cuts. His interest stems from Canada planning to use the Langdon Park sports school in Tower Hamlets as a training base in 2012. The head there, Chris Dunne, is among Gove's strong critics.

Actually, I would have thought M Dupre would be better occupied finding ways to improve his own country's sports structure – 19th place in the Beijing Olympics medal table, finishing beneath such luminaries as Belarus and Romania is hardly inspirational.

Interestingly, I have received a communication from an organisation called Compass, the trade body recently formed to improve standards in the delivery of coaching in schools at no cost, they say, to the public purse.

They argue thus:"Gove's change in policy could even (ironically) lead to increased expenditure on frontline delivery, directly to children.

In times where every pound counts, the opportunities to gain efficiencies and more diverse provision should be embraced and not derided.

By re-allocating funding directly to schools, Michael Gove has acted decisively to create a new free market economy, which will allow each school the opportunity to get the best value for their money and make the right choice for their students.

What now needs to happen is that all physical education and sport staff, whatever their employer or sector, who are genuinely passionate about improving physical education and increasing participation in sport and physical activity, find innovative ways to contribute so this 'controversial' policy decision by the Coalition Government could provide the taxpayer with value for money - and the country's children with increased and more varied opportunities to enjoy the benefits of sport and physical activity.

So you pays your £162 million and you takes your choice.

As I say, a vexing issue and one that will not go away until and unless Gove does a U-turn and gives the ball back. But he is a Tory, not a Lib Dem, so Government sources say such back-tracking won't happen.

But I would not be surprised should he eventually be persuaded by the Prime Minister and Sports Minister, who clearly have taken note of the protests, to offer some sort of compromise, perhaps by allowing the ring-fencing of part of the funding.

Bully for him, if he does.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

Last month's inaugural GB Amateur Boxing Championships at the Echo Arena in Liverpool saw a great display of British amateur boxing and, while rising boxing stars such as Luke Campbell, Charlie Edwards, Bradley Saunders and Anthony Joshua shone, all eyes were on the ladies for a change.

It was a historical event, with women's boxing televised for the first time on the BBC, and what a privilege it was for me to be invited to comment on female boxing and be part of the experience first hand.

Natasha Jonas, Nicola Adams, Lynsey Holdaway and Nina Smith were all part of the first ever bill. Not only were they boxing for themselves and their place on the GB team but they were boxing for every single one of us.

By all of us, I mean all of the female boxers who have been on a team going to international tournaments on shoestring budgets seeing that there is a wealth of female boxers out there beyond England's walls.

The long coach journeys, below par accommodation, no physio and bad food - just us and our coaches, hungry and excited to be lucky enough even to be on such a trip.

By all of us, I mean for every girl who knows what it is to train for a fight, to step in the ring far away from home with little support because travelling abroad was the only way to get bouts.

For every female boxer that's stuck on the end of an all-boys show met with so much criticism and comments that if I had a pound for every time someone said the following to me, I wouldn't even need to box right now: "You're too pretty to box", "Girls just aren't aggressive enough", "It's not a woman's sport."

Liverpool was a chance to silence the critics.

Nicola Adams, who won silver at the World Championships in the Bahamas earlier this year, finally had the platform to demonstrate her exceptional boxing skills and cheeky flare. And she really did deliver. In a bout of four two-minute rounds, Nicola showcased a range of shots in her arsenal, while Lynsey Holdaway showed grit and tenacity - although it wasn't enough against the experienced shots of Nicola, it was a great introduction.

The inclusion of female boxing reaches out to every girl who wants to have a go at boxing but feels too intimidated to go into a club full of boys - for every girl who started doing it as a hobby, a way to get fit, and thinks actually, I want to take this further.

This was for all of us.

As British female boxers we have proved to our European counterparts, who have over 10 years on us, that we are more than capable. England has produced two silver medallists, four gold EU medallists, countless bronze medallists and this is just the beginning.

I myself won an EU gold medal only eight fights deep. I was boxing seasoned European amateurs who had 70-plus fights on their records. So imagine what I could do, imagine what we could all do with the right coaches, nutritionists, sports psychologist, physics and, of course, funding. Well the girls last night demonstrated what is achieved as a result of all of that.

Natasha Jonas and Amanda Coulson, what a fight! What a great taster to whet the appetite of the British viewing public. All the right ingredients were there: a wonderful demonstration of technical skill, determination and heart teamed with the excitement and suspense that leaves the spectators clammy-handed and with voices broken.

Yes girls you done well and I felt proud to know I have been on some of that journey with you. It was also a night to catch up as us females do, to not only celebrate the historical moment but to hear each other's individual developments and progress reports - "Where are you at?" "Still training?" "When's your next bout?"

Time spent reminiscing on funny moments in the camps along the way, jibing each other for talking on the BBC now purely because this was a scene far removed from our boxing reality even just a year ago.

Now people want to talk to us and it is fantastic.

Getting interviewed straight after the fight, press politely hovering with voice recorders and photographers, being followed by doping officials to be regulated. I found myself thinking "Wow this is really happening now," - female boxing is considered a serious sport.

It's official. Female boxing is now relevant. There was a time when a female "boxing" expert who had a fight way back when or happened to do a couple of boxing keep fit classes was deemed a suitable candidate to comment on such an event as this.

Well it looks like those days are gone which is why they picked the likes of me and Lucy O'Connor, a true representation of the sport to add our honest and accurate accounts and experiences.

Lucy made her commentating debut, adding her input for both Nicola's and Tasha's fight and there was no one better for the job. Having made it through to the final GB selections, she had first hand insight into what these girls were facing - the training process they had endured and the emotional hurdles they would have had to jump. And I gave my opinion on what exciting times these are for female boxers right now.

And what about the ladies behind the scene that make the boxers deliver at ring level. We must not forget Rebecca Gibson, the ABAE development officer, for her tireless efforts for the female sport and Mandy Groarke who constantly sacrificed her free time to take us away for tournaments so we could get some experience.

Of course respect and dues are always paid to the likes of professional British female boxers Cathy Brown and Jane Couch and rightly so. If it wasn't for Jane making her voice heard then we may not have even been in these early stages of growth.

However it is a new day, a new dawn, and a new generation of female boxers that are kicking down the stereotypes and opening the doors.

Liverpool was a beautiful introduction and while their talented display may not have completely silenced the critics, the display of talent and skill was undeniable and should leave no room to question that women deserve to be in this sport.

This is just the beginning - the only way is up.

Lesley Sackey is one of the top female amateur boxers in England and won gold at the 2008 European Championships. She is also an ABA National Champion in the welterweight division and was one of the stars of the hit BBC Three television series 'Last Woman Standing' which aired earlier this year.

The BBC's Panorama programme told us nothing new about the 2018-22 World Cup campaign.

But it underlined the need for a changing of the guard in FIFA's upper echelons.

World football's governing body plainly has no intention of further investigating the nature of links between football officials and the ISMM/ISL sports marketing organisation which collapsed nearly a decade ago.

And I have nothing to say regarding the programme's specific allegations.

But while the ageing relics of that era still trundle around football's corridors of power, ISL's ghost will continue to haunt FIFA.

What was the sports business like in those last days of the waning century when New Labour was all the rage and France had a team of world-beaters?

I got an insight four years ago when my inquiries led me to a Swiss investigating magistrate's report relating to the collapse.

I wrote this story published by the UK's Guardian newspaper in September 2006.

The piece included the following passage:

"Another of the former ISMM executives...is quoted in the legal document as saying: "The payment of inducements to reputable personalities in sport for the promotion of sport policy and financial objectives originates from the 1970s, when sport became a financial driver.

"I was confronted with the fact that ISL had been engaging in such practices since the time of its foundation..."

About a year later, in October 2007, I found myself interviewing Jérôme Valcke, FIFA's secretary general, in the foyer of a Glasgow hotel.

(An account of this meeting was published in The Independent on Sunday and can be accessed here)


Towards the end of a more than hour-long conversation, during which I developed considerable respect for the rather studious-looking Frenchman, the following exchange took place:

Me: I have seen statements by senior ISL executives suggesting that this culture of what a lot of people describe as bribes but in the jargon are commissions is just endemic and always has been.

Valcke: "I agree with you...That's the old world. The old world was the system of commission...Twenty years ago, the system of the commission was just part of the system...Today the legal system has changed...and you can't do it any more...

"I'm too young...to have been in this system of the commission...but I agree that it was a system. All of us. we knew that."

Me: You say 20 years ago, but these appeared to be until 2000-01.

Valcke: "2000, yes I agree with you that the system was maybe changed in the 90s. But in the 90s you had younger people coming into the business. You had more and more people in charge who were coming from business schools, who were not just the son of the friends of xyz. When the money came in, it started to be a real business."

As the recent suspension of two executive committee members has shown, FIFA now has the tools to examine and deal with alleged breaches of its rules and regulations – and FIFA President Joseph Blatter at least deserves some credit for that.

Soon after the conclusion of the contest for the 2018-22 World Cups on Thursday, a welcome wind of change will start sweeping through the ExCo.

I would not be surprised to see a 30 to 40 per cent turnover of personnel in the space of a couple of years.

If FIFA is to rid itself of its reputation for sleaze, it is absolutely critical that the new arrivals be of the necessary calibre.

This will be FIFA's big opportunity to make a break with the past. Will it grasp it?

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938

The last couple of months have been really busy for me, particularly with the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, which I was lucky enough to be a part of.

I was out there commentating for the BBC and with the diving team in my mentoring role. I had an amazing time. Obviously you couldn't help but notice all the negative press before the Games but by the time I got there any problems seemed to have been rectified.

I heard that the Village wasn't as state-of-the-art as some other Games but everything I saw was of a high enough standard and there were no complaints from the diving team at all.

In terms of performances in the pool, I was really impressed by the standard of the diving in Delhi. The Commonwealth Games are always tough as many of the world's top nations are in the Commonwealth – I'd say it's almost as difficult to win a medal there as it is at the World Championships.

For example, when I won silver in Manchester in 2002, the top five finishers were in the top seven in the world, so to medal at a Commonwealth Games in diving is very difficult indeed.

We had some fantastic results – but we also had some agonising fourth places such as the three-metre women's synchro final. Overall though, the performances were great especially considering how strong the competition was.

Tom Daley stole the headlines at the Commonwealth Games and he put in fantastic performances to win two very well deserved gold medals, individually beating the Olympic champion Matt Mitcham from Australia and alongside Max Brick in the 10m Synchro. He's progressing really well and this is a great step in the right direction towards London 2012.

I first met Tom when he was 10 years old back in 2004 and have been a mentor of his ever since. It's a role I really enjoy - we have a great relationship and while we don't speak that often, I'm always there for him to share my experiences and support him.

He's had a tough year this year. He was injured for the Europeans, Youth Olympic Games and the Junior World Championships, and so to top off 2010 by finishing on a high shows real character and maturity for such a young man.

The past few years have been pretty intense for him and I guess the danger is that with him doing so well at the moment, anything less than gold in London could be perceived as a failure by the media, which would be really unfair.

It's the downside of being so successful but I don't think the media pressure will get to Tom – as long as his focus is on his performance and training rather than what's going in around him he'll be fine.

One thing I learnt is that you can't dwell on factors that are out of your control - for example other competitors, the media, judges as it negatively impacts your performance. The best chance of success comes from focusing on the things you can control such as your mood, your training and preparation.

Tom dives because it's his passion, not because of what other people write about him, and so I'm sure he is in the right mindset.

After the Games had ended I was lucky enough to spend an extra week in India. I'm a trained yoga teacher and so it was great to be able to head north to a place called Rishikesh, which is a yoga Mecca. I had a great time and I learnt a lot from my time there.

I first started yoga after retiring from diving. Diving is a sport that really takes its toll on the body - after four shoulder surgeries, a slipped disc in my back and a hernia, among other injuries, the medical team joked I was like a racehorse that needed putting down!

They suggested I take up yoga as a way of repairing some of the damage to my body. At first I wasn't too keen and dismissed it as nonsense but it's truly rebalanced my body and become a real passion of mine.

In general I'm really excited about London 2012. Of course there's a part of me that wishes I could compete but I've come to terms with it now and I'm excited about other opportunities that have come my way, for example as a BBC commentator, the BOA Athlete Commission and through my work as an ambassador for BT.

BT is an official partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and my role is to help them activate and raise awareness of their sponsorship both internally among staff and also in the media.

I speak at a lot of BT events and it's a real passion of mine to share my experiences from over 20 years in elite sport and explore with the audience the parallels between sport and business.

For Team GB athletes, London 2012 will be a dream come true – the best of the best competing on home soil in the biggest show on earth.

I went down to the Olympic Park last month and the venues are all coming along so well which is very exciting. I think home advantage will play a big part in 2012 and if we can replicate the performance in Beijing then we will have been successful.

Athens 2004 Olympic silver medallist Leon Taylor is a BT Ambassador. BT is an official partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Visit www.bt.com/london2012. For more information on Leon Taylor, visit www.leontaylor.co.uk and www.yogahaven.co.uk

This blog has tackled the subject of 'legacy' before and undoubtedly will again. It is unfortunate that the word appears to have lost some of its meaning in recent years as various initiatives are offered by Governments old and new supported by the Quangos they put in place and who appear to lack the knowledge to offer quality advice.

Harsh? Maybe. Fair? The evidence says yes.

We will look at the current Government's latest offering of initiative led, strategy lacking legacy wishes in a future blog although it is worth noting how many of these ideas rely so heavily on funding making long-term 'sustainability' (another misused word) questionable at best.

But what if Government policy was to lack a basic element which would provide a genuine, lasting legacy both for sport and the health of the nation that would cost very little to implement and yet the absence of which continues to undermine our children's future?

Forget 'what if' – the fact is this simple element is missing and not because it is new knowledge either.

I'm talking about Physical Literacy.

In the November 2005 issue of 'The Coach' I addressed the matter somewhat tongue in cheek:

"Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer"...so the song goes. Do you remember them? Not just the summer days which seemed to last forever, but every day, summer and winter. Those days before computer games and 300+ television stations, the days when you'd go out in the morning and might get home in time for tea if you ran out of things to do.Okay, I hear you ask, what has all that got to do with coaching?Everything!Because very frequently coaches from those generations (most of us) take it for granted (i.e. assume) that the physical development we received from our lifestyles as youngsters is the same as that enjoyed by today's youth. Sadly, it's not and that is why all coaches, regardless of the age group they work with should be aware of the five stages of Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD).In those bygone days (even the 70's really were that long ago), what we now call 'Physical Literacy' was something youngsters developed naturally as part of their lifestyles. Riding (and falling off) bicycles; climbing (and falling out of) trees; balancing on (and falling off) walls; running, jumping, climbing, sliding, skipping and who knows what else!I recently joked with a group of coaches that the reason we see fewer youngsters in plaster casts these days is because they explore the limits of their Physical Literacy so little! A joke, yes but it is a fact that sitting in front of televisions and computers and getting lifts here, there and everywhere is a lot safer. Yet there can be little doubt it is affecting more than just the nation's health, it is affecting the nation's sporting performance too!

Nowadays, the fact is that the coach needs to be aware of exactly what we mean by Physical Literacy to ensure that the athlete's training takes into account their development (or lack of).

So, what is 'Physical Literacy'?

In short hand it is:

ABC + ABCs + KGB + CKS

That is:

· ABC = the ABC of athletic movement which is Running, Jumping and Throwing.

· ABCs where A = Agility, B = Balance, C = Coordination and S = (neural) Speed.

· KGB where K = Kinaesthesia,  G = Gliding and B = Buoyancy.

· CKS where C = Catching, K = Kicking and S = Striking.

Now, think back to 'those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer' and you'll see that the average child of the 70's and before covered most of that little lot just by being a normal active child. Since the 80's however children have been less active and have not developed the same degree of Physical Literacy.

Jim Cowan, The Coach, Issue 31, Nov/Dec 2005

The article went on the explain that the ideal ages to develop Physical Literacy was between 6 and 11 although the point of that article was to address remedial Physical Literacy work in senior athletes, only required because the general population was/is so poor!

Now the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine (BASEM) are agreeing with me and are calling on the Government to include something called 'five in five' in schools.



Speaking in the Daily Mail today Dr Richard Budgett, of BASEM, said he is deeply concerned about current PE lessons in schools. "Out of the 40 minutes, there's eight minutes of activity going on. Very often the kids are standing around and just listening to the teacher talk."

Dr Budgett said children are "made to 'run before they can walk' because they are thrown into playing sport before they learn how to co-ordinate and move properly."

He added: "Without learning the basics of how to balance and reach and co-ordinate, all their sporting techniques may well be flawed."

It is important to note that BASEM are not suggesting we do away with competitive sport in schools, simply that we add a logical step to the learning of every child which will improve their ability to both enjoy and excel at sport, both key reasons for continuing to do sport.

Is this new thinking? No. In 2001 Chris Earle (Loughborough University) in rebuffing the thinking that Physical Literacy as part of a Long Term Athlete Development programme was an 'elite' model said;

"This is not a "high performance" model but rather an athlete retention model.  By increasing each young person's success rate, by keeping more young people playing sport longer, there will be a larger pool of potential talent to fish in."

Isn't more people (especially youngsters) playing more sport exactly what legacy is supposed to be all about?

What is the cost of introducing the teaching of Physical Literacy into the curriculum of every primary school (and until we catch up other schools too)? It is the price of teaching teachers how and why to deliver Physical Literacy to the young people in their care. Compared to the £millions thrown at (so-called) legacy in recent years, it's not much is it?

And the cost of not introducing it? Probably £Billions!

As part of one of our own Cowan Global Training workshops we highlight the knock on effects of a nation with poor Physical Literacy. These are not restricted to fewer people enjoying and therefore taking up sport. As a by-product of that we also see a population with less active lifestyles and less (physical) mobility who are also more accident prone, less healthy and are prone to higher levels of obesity. In short an invisible but nonetheless huge burden on the NHS's budget.

As Dr Budgett puts it in the Daily Mail: "In later life this (lack of co-ordination, a key component of Physical Literacy) leads to musculo-skeletal disorders. Painful backs, necks, shoulders and hips can cause a great loss of quality in our daily lives."

Of course, if it isn't fun, people won't do it so the learning of Physical Literacy must be fun. Having delivered hundreds of Physical Literacy sessions to young and old over the years, this author can testify that the above equation is easy to turn into fun sessions packed with variety and challenge.

Zoe Biggs, a teacher at Camps Hill Primary School in Stevenage has been trying out BASEM's recommendations with 60 nine and ten year olds at her school. She told the Daily Mail: "They have vastly improved co-ordination and strength. And they loved it!"

What of the Government? In the same Daily Mail article the Department for Education (DfE) said deciding whether or not to include this training would be up to individual schools before stating it would prefer them to focus on more competitive sport.

Will someone at the DfE please wake up and realise what 'legacy' means and start thinking about how we equip ALL children to enjoy that competitive sport thereby creating a pathway for a lifetime of physical activity. You would not ask a child to write an essay without first teaching them basic literacy, why are you asking children to take up (and then hope they will continue with) physical activity without first teaching them to be physically literate?

Jim Cowan is a former athlete, coach, event organiser and sports development specialist who is the founder of Cowan Global, a company specialising in consultancy, events and education and training. For more details click here

Yesterday we launched the Gold Challenge www.goldchallenge.org – a new charity challenge with the aim to complete as many Olympic and Paralympic sports as you can by the end of 2012 – after 18 months of often manically hard work.

I hadn't been closely involved with the detail of the event and it was fantastic to walk into the enormous nursery pavilion at Lords and see how the event team had managed to bring the Gold Challenge to life.

We had Olympians and Paralympians demonstrating their sports and giving the 500 attendees the chance to try fencing, judo, canoeing, table-tennis, boxing and archery.

It was great to see enthusiastic people queuing up to have a go on all the sports – everyone really embraced it and particularly enjoyed fighting colleagues and friends on the fencing piste or learning how to throw someone in judo!

The Gold Challenge is part of the official mass participation legacy program for London 2012 and Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Jennie Price, chief executive officer of Sport England, and Andy Hunt, chief executive officer of the British Olympic Association, all gave excellent speeches.

We also had about 100 of our charity partners in attendance. It was great to see so many of them and to talk to their corporate partners. Corporate partnerships are key to charities and we're excited to think that the Gold Challenge is going to be central to many corporate employee engagement programs over the next couple of years.


The only low point was losing at fencing to Konnie Huq (pictured) – which was, of course, entirely due to Chris Hollins' questionable scoring!

All in all a great day and I owe huge thanks to everyone involved in making it such a success.

Dan Thompson is the founder and chief executive of Gold Challenge.