Politically Speaking: Yvette Cooper MP - Going For Gold

Yvette Cooper MP writes: We are currently seventh in the medals table with four gold, five silver and three bronze. We are witnessing athletes push themselves physically in a way that most of us can’t imagine and the margins for success and winning a medal could not be smaller.

We cheered on Pontefract’s own Max Litchfield – in his fourth Olympics as the British record holder. 0.19 seconds was the margin between Max winning a medal in the 400m individual medley and coming fourth.

But while Max may feel disappointed at how close he came, I hope he knows that Pontefract is incredibly proud of him – he beat his own record again in Paris this year, he was a silver medallist at this year’s World Championships and is an inspiration for budding athletes across Yorkshire too.

But the inspiring power of sport is not just about our athletes. Local business Recent Beans provided the official coffee for the GB athletics team – a source of pride for Castleford and a boost for our local economy too.

And the Olympics takes us back to our own opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London. It was an opening ceremony that celebrated what makes Great Britain so great; the miners, the health workers, the factory workers, the ordinary people that this country is built upon.

What we see when we watch the events in Paris, is ordinary people that do extraordinary things through hard work and determination.

Most of all though we need to see sport inspiring our children again. After the 2012 Olympics there should have been a brilliant legacy of sport and activity for a new generation in Britain.

But instead, David Cameron’s Conservative government axed the school sports access programme which widened support for top quality sports teaching, and narrowed the school curriculum so that children who were good at sports, drama or vocational and practical skills ended up losing out. PE lessons at school were cut back. And youth teams have often struggled.

That’s why the newly elected Labour Government is determined to give children more chance to enjoy sport again.

The education secretary has announced a new review of the school curriculum to make it broader and more inspiring, and to make sure we value school sports.

We know money is going to be tight for some years to come, especially as we find out that there was a £20 billion black hole in the public finances left by the Conservative Government that they tried to cover up.

But we are still determined to set priorities that support our children and help them enjoy the activities they need.

And it’s why Wakefield Council and local community groups are organising sports events throughout the summer holidays. Countless young people will be inspired by events in Paris this summer, but our young people deserve more than just a dream and Labour is committed to matching their ambition and helping them realise that dream.