Going for London’s gold
Last updated 12:18, Friday, 22 August 2008
On Sunday afternoon the Beijing Olympics will close, and three Cumbrian athletes – Sir Chris Bonington, Joss Naylor and Laura Park – will unfurl the 2012 Olympic flag at the top of Scafell Pike. With the 2012 games taking place in London, will Cumbria reap any benefits? Stephen Blease reports
The Beijing Olympics may be closing on Sunday, but preparations for the next ones began long before this year’s even started.
And as the Olympic flag is handed over from Beijing to London, and 2012 flags are raised across this country, those preparations will step up a gear.
The bulk of the £9.3million budget for the 2012 Olympics is of course being spent in the capital, clearing land, building stadiums and paying for security and transport. It is reportedly the biggest peacetime operation that Britain has ever undertaken.
But the influx of sportsmen and women from around the world will all need somewhere to stay and train when they arrive here in 2012.
So each UK region is now engaged in its own Olympic struggle – to lure the next Olympians.
Our county is no different. Cumbria Sports Partnership sent a team of representatives to Beijing to speak to athletes and coaches from around the world to promote Cumbria as a venue for training – or at least visiting – when they come to Britain in four years’ time.
They have produced a promotional DVD for them entitled Prepare for 2012 in Cumbria – the Adventure Capital UK .
And a directory of the UK’s top sports facilities being handed out in Beijing lists three of Cumbria’s venues as Olympic-class: the Sheepmount athletics stadium in Carlisle, Kendal Judo Club and the Hoops Basketball Centre in Barrow.
The partnership’s chief executive Eddie Edge explained: “Over the past few months we’ve been working to see how Cumbria can get all the benefits from the London games. We have three venues in the directory that should encourage 2012 Olympians to consider Cumbria.”
He argued that the county’s natural environment as well as its built environment lends itself to Olympic training.
The lakes provide ready-made training grounds for water sports such as rowing, canoeing and sailing, while our hilly terrain suits cyclists and fell runners. Both features suit triathletes.
Counties such as Essex and Kent may be closer to London than Cumbria but Mr Edge says: “I don’t see transport as a barrier.
“We are three and a half hours from London on a direct train route. And if Carlisle Airport does get up and running in four years’ time we could be an hour away.”
If Olympians prefer large cities such as Manchester, they will still be on our doorstep.
Mr Edge said: “If they are going to be in the north-west, we can say to them: ‘Why not spend two or three days up in Cumbria, do some road cycling here and enjoy a completely different environment?”
Besides, he argued that the quality of welcome the athletes received mattered more than their proximity to London.
“They will like the approach in Cumbria. We don’t just want to put them in a training camp. We want to provide civic receptions, and give them a welcoming environment.
“People who worked at the Sydney Olympics said that was very important.”
Providing a welcome to foreign visitors has long been important for the Cumbrian economy. Tourism provides many jobs both directly in hotels and guesthouses and indirectly in shops and restaurants, and is a vital source of outside money.
Julie Darroch of Cumbria Tourism pointed out that even if international athletes can’t be persuaded to stay in Cumbria, visitors to the Games will want to take the opportunity to explore other parts of the country – and Cumbria will be one of them.
“We want people who are going to be based in London during the Olympics to appreciate that in just over three hours they can see our spectacular landscape, and the complete contrast it provides,” Miss Darroch said.
“We will be doing our best to make sure people come out of London.”
