Culture secretary Hunt calls for London 2012 legacy at elite level

By Nick Clowes, Sportsbeat

CULTURE secretary Jeremy Hunt insists London 2012 must provide a sporting legacy at elite, not just grass roots, level.

FORWARD THINKING: Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt wants elite sporting legacy as well as at grass roots

The Government has announced plans to merge UK Sport and Sport England - the bodies responsible for elite and grass roots sport respectively - in a cost-cutting measure after London 2012.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport was far from immune from the Government cuts earlier this summer and will no doubt face further belt-tightening upon the announcement of next month's Comprehensive Spending Review.

Mergers have therefore been the order of the day for Hunt, while Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson has outlined his sporting legacy plans, which include a new Olympic-style schools competition.

In opposition, both Hunt and Robertson were critical of the alphabet soup of government-backed funding bodies for sport but now believe the merger will strip domestic sport administration of reams of red tape.

The Sport England branch of the post-2012 merged body will primarily be responsible for community sport while the Youth Sport Trust will continue to oversee school sport.

Elite sport administration is less clear however with the British Olympic Association eyeing a more hands-on role after the London Games.

That's unlikely to be music to the ears of UK Sport - already disgruntled with the extent of the merger - who have previously clashed with the BOA over Sir Clive Woodward's role and his plans to develop athletes, which overlapped with the publicly-funded body.

International Olympic Committee rules state that the BOA must remain free from government interference but chairman Colin Moynihan has expressed his wishes to increase their role in elite athlete development to ensure London 2012 is no lord mayor's show.

Australia, for example, have seen their Olympic performance steadily decline since Sydney 2000 and despite the penny-pinching, Hunt is determined to ensure the same fate does Great Britain.

"I obviously can't pre-judge the discussions I will be having with the treasury but all I would say is that if we are going to have a legacy for London 2012 and a decade of sport, then we need to make sure that 2012 is not a one off," said Hunt.

"It needs to be a sustained performance after that because the top of the pyramid is just as important as the bottom.

"I'm fighting fire to make sure we do have a lasting Olympic legacy in difficult financial times.

"These are very tough times whereby I'm having to come up with scenarios with 25-40 per cent cuts - I want to make sure every penny is spent on sport and not on bureaucracy and administration."