Children of the Olympics

Summer is always a busy time for sport, but 2016 was a bumper year.
 
Football fever from the Euros took over most of June and early July. There was barely time to clear the unwanted football stickers from the living room floor and catch up on all the homework our kids had fallen behind on, before Wimbledon, the Tour de France and the local egg-and-spoon race crashed into our lives.

 
 
Still out of breath from all that sitting and cheering, along came the Biggest Sporting Beast of them all, fresh from a carnival float in Rio – the Olympic Games. Two weeks of non-stop sport, largely involving events none of us have ever heard of or played or know the rules to, but we just love to watch.
 
The impact of watching sports
It’s surprising how any of us have managed to do any exercise at all this summer, what with sitting on our bottoms watching other people get fit, is amazing.
 
Add the fact that Rio’s time zone means much of this watching occurred at 3am, thus rendering the next day useless and leaving an entire generation of school children chronically sleep-deprived for much of August, and you can see what true dedication and endurance it has taken to get through this summer’s sporting bonanza.
 
But how much of an impact does all of this sport watching, have on sport doing? Sitting for four hours a day eating Doritos and moving only the muscles that take our hands to our mouths, is hardly a work-out. When your greatest physical effort of the weekend is walking to the kitchen for another packet of Oreos, you might want to ask yourself how much of an impact all of this sport is having on your health.
 
But, wait. There is good news on the sport-watching front. Statistics seem to show that watching sport can and does, have a measurable, and even considerable effect on how much sport we then go and do. And this applies especially to children.
 
Athletes can positively influence children
Just anecdotally, many of us can probably have some experience of this. I remember after the London Olympics in 2012, taking my son, then nine years old, along to the local athletics club in September, to sign him up.
 
I’ve been a competitive runner since I was a child, and I’ve always wanted to get my kids into running. I cajoled, begged and bribed them – but they showed no interest at all.
And then along came London and Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Usain Bolt and so on… and he was hooked. I couldn’t get him to the track fast enough.
 
On turning up at the club, we were greeted by a queue of children longer than a lap of the Olympic stadium, and a frazzled club manager, who told us there was now a waiting list until well into the next year.
 
This, at a local club where one could once just turn up and run, and which was usually desperately seeking new members. Now, post-Olympics, they couldn’t deal with the volume. And these kids couldn’t wait to get going.
 
On cold, drizzly, dark Monday nights they turned up week after week and ran, jumped and threw. Come rain or shine, in the snow and the dark, trying to be the best they could be. To improve. To set themselves new challenges and goals, and compete both against each other, and themselves. To jump higher. Run faster. Throw further.
 
Honestly, going to watch them train together sometimes moved me to tears, it was such a beautiful, positive, communal thing, with children doing something that didn’t involved computers, televisions or mobile phones.
 
The increase in uptake of sport isn’t just on the track and field…
Swimming clubs are over-run (or should that be over-swum?!) with new applicants. Diving became hugely popular after London 2012, largely because of a certain Mr Daley, who splashed, twisted and flipped his way into the nation’s hearts. Cycling also had a massive surge in interest from children who watched it on TV, as did gymnastics.
 
According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2013, the percentage of children aged 11-15 doing sport outside school hours rose from 87% to 94.4% during the London Olympic year.
 
Of course, many of these numbers then dwindled as the interest waned. But still, the very fact that watching sport, talking about sport, being excited by and interested in sport, can have such an impact on children that they want to give it a go, is enough for me to know it’s a good thing.
 
My children have always come to my races and seen me run, alongside thousands of others. They’ve seen me lose and then forced myself to get back out there, train harder, and win. They see it as a part of life. As something very normal. Many of their friends have reached high levels of sporting achievements, and my son, now 13, is the school high-jump record-holder, and is competing at County level. And he loves it.
 
It’s not just about physical health. It’s about mental health too
Doing exercise is widely known to have a hugely positive effect on the way we feel. It’s also very good for children to learn how to fail, and how to strive to be the best they can be.
 
Training muscles early in life stays with children for the rest of their lives, through ‘muscle-memory’. And doing sport with others is fantastic for team spirit, helping others, and human interaction. (If I’m laying it on a bit thick here, it’s because I am passionate about it!)
 
Success isn’t easy, but it’s worth it
And as we tune into the Paralympics, we can all sit down to watch another set of amazing people compete by pushing themselves to their limits, and achieving great things. And feeling fantastic for it.
 
If this encourages one child to get out there and kick a ball, swim a length, jump over a hurdle or cycle around the park, then that hour they spent watching others do it, was worth it.
 
It’s then down to us, their parents, to find the time and put in our effort, to enable our children to do the sport they love. If we need extra childcare for this, or help at home at the weekends, then we need to sort that out.
 
Success doesn’t come easy. But it’s so worth striving for.