The glitz of London 2012 failed to persuade the nation to win off the sofa. The lower-key success of Parkrun shows a smarter way to boost participation in sportEvery Saturday morning,at 9am, more than 50000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park. The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad. Events are free, and staffed by thousands of volunteers. Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley’s world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.
Parkrun is succeeding where London’s Olympic “legacy” is failing. Ten years ago on Monday,it was announced that the Games of the XXX Olympiad would be in London. Tony Blair told the International Olympic Committee that London had the power to motivate “millions more young people in Britain and across the world”. Planning documents pledged that the noteworthy legacy of the Games would be to lever a nation of sport lovers away from their couches. The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners. It has not happened. The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, and by nearly 2 million in the runup to 2012 – but the general population was growing faster. Worse,the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate. The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week beget nearly halved. Obesity has risen among adults and children. Official postmortems continue as to why London 2012 failed to “inspire a generation”. The success of Parkrun offers answers.
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Source: theguardian.com