The headteacher of an east London secondary school says the 2012 legacy in his borough had evaporated before the last athletes even left the Olympic village
There are very few open spaces in Tower Hamlets, and virtually no sports clubs. No wonder, then, that about 80% of the London borough's 35,000 young residents never participate in sport or physical activity outside of school. No wonder that 15% of young people entering our schools are clinically obese.
In 2005 a School Sport Partnership widened the sport on offer in schools and formed solid links with sports clubs to nurture the most talented. Inter-school competitions increased from one to 37 for primary schools and from five to 35 for secondaries, while participation rose from 24% of students to over 50%. But since Michael Gove removed ring-fenced funding, participation has fallen to 28%.
We employed a team of development officers who had played sport to a high level, had good connections, and knew what motivated young people to get into and stay in their sport.
There isn't even a grass cricket pitch in Tower Hamlets, but our cricket officer, Jahid Ahmed, has taken more than 60 youngsters to Blackheath Cricket Club in the borough of Greenwich, which has high standards of coaching, facilities and competition. Of these, 10 have gone on to play county cricket for their age group and one, Dipayan Paul, won a professional contract when he joined the MCC Young Cricketers in 2012.
Tower Hamlets hockey teams tend to feature mainly Canary Wharf or City workers rather than local residents. None was interested in developing a youth section to provide opportunities for local children. Our hockey officer, Allan Dick, the current Scotland goalkeeper, set up a district team from which boys' and girls' under-10 to under-16 teams emerged.
Six years ago there was no British Judo Association club in Tower Hamlets. Thanks to our judo officer, Mariusz Bajda, there is now a club with more than 150 young members. The most successful, Leonardo De Moura Muniz, trains with the GB squad and Mariusz accompanies him to tournaments around the UK and Europe.
These are just examples. We were doing the same in rugby, fencing, diving and badminton, to name a few.
In August 2012, the prime minister, talking of the high percentage of privately educated athletes in Team GB, queried why "in so many schools sport has been squeezed out and facilities run down". Many of us found this astonishing given his decision to remove ring-fenced funding and break up the very networks that had allowed state-educated students a glimpse of the coaching and facilities their private school counterparts enjoy.
Tower Hamlets has been able to salvage more than most from the wreckage. All 90 schools and academies have put some of their Pupil Premium funding towards a Tower Hamlets Youth Sports Foundation. But it was with bitter irony over the Olympic summer that we made redundant five sports managers and coaches.
Most gallingly, some of these were young people who had risen through our sports leadership programmes, under which 250 young people were trained to assist primary school teachers and run 33 neighbourhood sports clubs. These have now joined the young unemployed of Tower Hamlets – the highest proportion in the UK.
So much for the sporting legacy! So much for inspiring a generation!
Chris Dunne is head of Langdon Park secondary, Tower Hamlets