Team GB Stars are Crucial to the Legacy Debate

The Olympic flame has gone out, the party's come to an end, and it's back to Jon Snow and Krishnan Guru-Murthy when I get in after work. I'm not for a moment saying they wouldn't look good in Lycra and fluorescent footwear - but let's face it, things will not be the same.

The Olympic flame has gone out, the party's come to an end, and it's back to Jon Snow and Krishnan Guru-Murthy when I get in after work. I'm not for a moment saying they wouldn't look good in Lycra and fluorescent footwear - but let's face it, things will not be the same.

The post Olympics buzz word is legacy, and the PM has appointed Sebastian Coe as Olympics Legacy Ambassador and thrown in a whole new 'Olympics legacy unit'. This is great news.

Top of his in-tray should be to tackle obesity and draw kids away from the gadgets that keep them sedentary and encourage them to embrace active lives. I've got a teenage sister and dragging her away from her iPad just to take the dog for walk around the park is an Olympic feat in itself.

Councils should stop selling off playing fields and cash needs to be pumped into better facilities. I notice that many of our athletes, including double gold medallist Mo Farah, choose to train abroad where facilities are more advanced. Not all young people can afford to go places like the USA, so we need to have the same opportunities here.

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Mentoring programmes are also a great idea. The games have caused us all to shout at the TV and cheer on competitors that we don't even know; I love Jessica Ennis, she's an amazing inspiration and as the Team GB poster girl, we will never forget her. But with a medal haul that includes a staggering 29 gold medals and 65 medals for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in total, we must enlist all of our sporting heroes to work alongside Lord Coe to encourage up and coming sports stars. I am successful today because of the mentors that guided me through my career.

Opening the papers and reading good news stories every day has united the country in optimism. Who said good news doesn't sell papers? Very soon we will be back to the doom and gloom of the economic downturn and the front pages will once again remind us of the troubles faced by the eurozone.

But we mustn't forget the new people, like Nicola Adams, that we've been introduced to. Hers is the story of an everyday girl who overcame the odds in a male dominated sport, making history as the first female boxing Olympic champion and taking home gold.

It 's achievements like this that will truly inspire the next generation.

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