An Olympic-style school sports competition is to begin next year according to Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Schools in nine areas of England will take part in pilot projects next year with a full competition to take place the following year with finals in the Olympic Park shortly before the opening ceremony of London 2012.
Hunt said the games were in direct response to the “woeful decline of competitive sport” in schools. He wants to address the worrying statistics that “only one in five of our schoolchildren regularly play inter-school sport and more than half of them don’t play it at all.”
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As well as the obvious benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle, the Culture Secretary was also keen to point out some of the valuable lessons than can be learnt from competitive sport: “If you want your children to strive for success they have to learn to cope with failure.”
The pilot competitions will take place in Kent, London, Hertfordshire, the Black Country, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, Manchester and Cornwall. After the trials, schools from across the whole country will be able to take part, culminating in the finals at the Olympic Park which is sure to get the excitement going for 2012.
Kirsty Page, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
