Inspire a Generation - Build on Olympic Success







The Olympic Flame in Dundee

Like many people I have thoroughly enjoyed the Olympic Games and I am a little sad that they have come to an end.  I have really enjoyed watching the games on TV and also enjoyed my limited involvement.  The Olympic Torch events in Dundee were marvellous and really brought the Olympic spirit to the city.  I also attended an Olympic Football match at Hampden between Egypt and Belarus.  While this may not have been the best football match of all time I really enjoyed just being there.  It was rather special for me because when I was a little boy my grandparents lived one street away from Hampden.  So I was pleased to pass my grannie's old house on the way to the match.

Egypt Celebrate a Goal at Hampden

I think that it is important that we look for ways to maintain and build on the legacy of the Olympics, we need to build for the Commonwealth Games and beyond.  I don't think that politics and sport always mix well but politicians have a duty to do what we can to promote sport.

There should be a Cross-Party consensus on the importance of sport to the future of the Dundee and for action to support sport. I am very clear that the fantastic achievements over the last couple of weeks need to lead to a legacy of participation and success in sport.  I congratulate Team GB on their magnificent achievements in the Olympics. I will be asking the City Council to bring together all the council departments associated with sport, sporting organisations and partners such as Dundee College and Dundee's universities.



Like everyone else I have thoroughly enjoyed the Olympic Games over the past couple of weeks. I would like to congratulate everyone who was responsible for making the games such a success. I would also like to congratulate all of Team GB's successful athletes.

I think that it is important that there is a legacy from these games which encourages participation and success in sport in the years to come. There should be a cross-party consensus on the benefits sport. I think that the council should look at everything that it does to promote sport, this is across many, many council departments from City Development to Environment to Education. We also collectively need to ask ourselves are we doing all that we can do to facilitate sport in the city.

We need to build on the success of the Olympics. Dundee will soon have a new regional gymnastics facility we should look to inviting the GB men's team, including Dan Purvis who has a close connection with Dundee, and indeed Beth Tweddle who won medals in London to this new facility. The new Olympia will open soon and we should look at inviting Michael Jamieson, who won a silver medal to the new pool. The council should also be looking to mark other achievements at the London games such as Ged Curran umpiring the men's hockey final. These achievements can inspire others.

I will be writing to the Chief Executive of the City Council asking that he bring forward a report to the council on how collectively we promote sport in the city. There is investment taking place just now but we need to have a programme to go forward. We need to decide where to invest next, should it be improving tennis courts in the city or putting specialist PE teachers back in our primary schools, for example? Sport can play a key role in convincing people that Dundee is a good place to live in and a good place to do business.

Sport is popular in Dundee we need to build on this and we need to ensure that the success of the Olympics points towards a successful Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014; and that the legacy of both is more participation in sport in Dundee and that for a few Dundonians it is a legacy of elite involvement in international competitions.