True legacy is about empowerment

The GB women's football team rekindle memories of London 2012 as my trip to the first ever Hundred cricket match looms

It was enjoyable to watch the GB women’s football team ease past Chile in Tokyo this morning, not least because it brought back memories of the London 2012 Olympics.

The summer of 2012 was a wonderful time to be a sports fanatic.

There was a lot of talk at the time about legacy. Meaning, increasing the numbers of men, women and children taking up sport.

If my two daughters reaction this week proves anything, it’s that sport is embedded in their consciousness - thanks in small part to that wondrous summer nine years ago.

Happy days

During London 2012, apart from the fact there was wall-to-wall coverage on the Olympics, for a short while, the country seemed a happier, more inclusive place.

You could tell something special was happening because complete strangers spoke to each other on the tube. And got friendly responses. Instead of panicked looks.

How we ever got from July 2012 to today is another matter entirely. But for a few fleeting moments that glorious summer watching international sport was as good as it got.

GB Women’s football team

I took my three kids to the Olympic Park on days when I couldn’t actually get tickets for any events.

The events we did manage to get into mostly involved the men’s and women’s archery at Lord’s (how strange, yet thrilling it was to see the grand old place utterly transformed) and men’s and women’s football at Wembley.

Unable to get into the Olympic Stadium for any athletics events, I consoled myself and my three kids with plenty of football matches. One of which was the GB Women’s stirring 1-0 victory over Brazil in front of 70,000 at Wembley.

I got goosebumps talking about that day with my eldest daughter this week. She still recalls the excitement of the event, the noise and the colour.

While my eldest can’t remember too many details about the match itself (Steph Houghton skipped over the Brazil goalkeeper Andreia to score the winning goal for Great Britain) it left a lasting impact in my daughter’s memory - not least by asking only yesterday when we could next go to a women’s game, once this infernal pandemic subsides.

Olympic legacy

The Olympics also led to my youngest daughter taking up sport that summer, prompted by the fun she had at the Olympic Park - which mostly involved doing large numbers of handstands on the landscaped gardens around the stadium and the Orbit.

This was because she realised that sport could be fun. Playing sport and watching sport.

True legacy is about engagement and empowerment

The number of girls and women now playing football has grown exponentially over the last nine years, not least because of the example of the GB Women’s team during that never-to-be-forgotten summer. I certainly see it every Saturday morning when taking my youngest to her games. The number of girls who want to be footballers is as wonderful as it is heartening, inspiring as it is empowering.

That was surely the best legacy the London 2012 Olympics committee could ask for: Giving young girls (and boys) a lifelong love of sport.

Here’s hoping the 2020 GB Women’s football team - and the entire GB squad across all disciplines currently in Tokyo - help to inspire this generation’s youngsters to feel the same.

……………………

PS

The Hundred’s target audience

I also took my eldest to a women’s Ashes Test at Lord’s a couple of years later.

We spoke about that too. I would have loved to have taken her to south London tonight, where the Oval Invincibles take on the Manchester Originals in the first ever match in a new format, called The Hundred.

I’ll let you know my take on it tomorrow, but in the meantime, kudos to the organisers for selling the format as a competition for women and men.

My eldest daughter certainly meets the organisers profile of their target audience. Young and keen to soak up new experiences.

Unfortunately, she can’t make the first ever Hundred cricket match with me at the Oval tonight as she’s got her prom. (A Prom, I ask you. Two things: When did English schools turn into Beverly Hills 90210? And why do I feel so old?)

So, I’m going with one of my cousins from across the Irish Sea. I haven’t seen him since before lockdown, so no doubt we’ll have a fair few jars and catch up.

Incidentally I first took him to a cricket match at Lord’s in the summer of 1985, and many various formats of the game since, including a Test match at Trent Bridge in 2014, in which Jimmy Anderson scored an improbable 81.

We spoke about that the other day. ‘We got so drunk’ is all he could remember from that day.

So, perhaps the Hundred will be for him after all.

Just don’t tell the organisers.

@laythy29