by Our Sports Desk

THE government was blasted as “wicked and negligent” yesterday for failing to widen participation in sport following the 2012 Olympics.

Former Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said the opportunity to build an Olympic legacy had been “squandered” by the Tories and their former Lib Dem partners.

Sport England’s latest figures from April 2015 suggests that rather than seeing a rise in participation, the number of people over 16 participating in sport at least once a week has in fact dropped from 15.89 million in October 2012 to 15.49m.

Ms Jowell, who was part of the team that helped secure the Olympic and Paralympic Games for London, told the Guardian: “Instead of a generation of children being transformed by sport, a generation of children have been robbed of the chance to discover a sport they’re really good at.

“We were on track. It was absolutely, wholly and solely their fault. It was going to be delivered. We were on course to deliver it as the figures make absolutely clear. Whenever I think about it, it makes me furious that this opportunity was squandered. My fury is on behalf of all those who were starting secondary schools five years ago.”

The former minister also explained that the dip could mean that competitive Olympic sports become the preserve of the wealthy: “I hope this is a huge stain on their consciences. When we get to Tokyo (in 2020) I think it likely we’ll be back to half our medallists being from independent schools. It doesn’t mean they’re great athletes.”

In fact the Sport England report reveals that while participation among young people from wealthier backgrounds has increased, the take up of sport by those from lower-income families has decreased.

But while Ms Jowell condemned cuts to school sports programmes that have left grassroots participation “back where we started in 2002,” former London 2012 chairman Seb Coe disagreed.

“There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth whenever Sport England releases its latest participation figures. I believe there is little value in looking at the figures in six-monthly chunks, let us look across 10-year cycles,” he said.

“Pre-2005 there is little doubt sport participation was declining and had been for a long time, particularly among young people. Since bidding for the Games, that trend has reversed. In the past 10 years of the Active People survey, 1.4 million more people are doing sport at least once a week.”