Yorkshire embraces the Olympic ideal as 2012 looms

"This is going to do so much for our country, not just the East End in London."

David Beckham never seems to be far from a political sports story these days, not even in 2005 when despite still being a prominent world footballer he found time to help London successfully bid for the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

"The spin off for sport in the UK will be huge," added Lord Coe, the driving force behind the bid and the man who continues to front the build-up to the biggest show on earth touching down in our nation's capital.

But are Beckham and Lord Coe right? Will an Olympics in London benefit the whole country? Will the spin-off for sport be as big and as wide-ranging and all-encompassing as expected?

Here in Yorkshire, the mission is on for those dreams to be realised; to ensure the people of the White Rose reap the benefits of the greatest sportsmen and women competing on these shores; to maximise potential both through participation sports and the local economy.

While the main focus of attention from July 27, 2012, over the five-week period of the Olympics and Paralympics will centre mainly on London, there is a chance for the people of Yorkshire to embrace the Olympics.

Firstly, in the run up to the Games, the county will play host to the pre-Olympic camps of a number of competing nations.

Four of Britain's Olympic squads already use Sheffield as their base; the divers, table tennis players, the boxing team and the volleyball squad.

And with the carrot of Don Valley Stadium, the English Institute of Sport and Ponds Forge in Sheffield; the John Charles Centre for Aquatic Sport plus the state-of-the-art facilities at Leeds University and Leeds Metropolitan University, plus the facilities on offer in the universities of North Yorkshire; this county has an unrivalled package of training venues to offer overseas Olympic teams.

Throw in the likes of the Costello Sports Stadium in Hull and the Dorothy Hyman Sports Centre in Barnsley and there are 49 approved venues for training camps here in Yorkshire.

Already six overseas teams have signed up to train in Yorkshire in partnerships that extend beyond sporting boundaries.

Serbia's entire Olympic team – comprising between 150 and 200 athletes – will be based in Leeds and Sheffield after a joint agreement was signed between the cities to host the Eastern European nation.

Leeds will also host the swim team of the Netherlands, who will regularly train and hold camps at their pre-Games base at the John Charles Centre.

Speaking on their choice of Leeds, Aad van Groningen of the Dutch Swimming Federation, said: "I am confident that the Aquatics Centre and the support Leeds can offer will provide us with the perfect training environment for us to succeed at the London 2012 Games."

As well as the camps, Leeds Council are in discussion to host the Leeds Canvas in May 2012 which will be one of the major cultural Olympiad events outside London, as well as other cultural programmes in the run-up to the Games. For the torch relay they are in negotiations to host an overnight celebration to mark the Olympic flame's passing through the city.

Sheffield Council has signed an agreement allowing the United States diving team to use their facilities at Ponds Forge with the city's annual hosting of a leg of the FINA World Diving Series underlining the venue's status as one of the top aquatic facilities in the world.

The Steel City will also play host to the Brazilian judo team who have been using the EIS as a training facility since last October and will continue to do so all the way to July 2012.

Coun Roger Davidson, cabinet member for culture, sport and tourism from Sheffield Council, said: "It's good for the city and its residents. Our economy will grow from hosting these teams.

"The training camps are superb opportunities for us to promote the Games to local residents and participation in sport."

Sheffield's Olympic co-ordinators are also in discussions with the Brazilian diving team to work alongside their American counterparts in staging their training camps in the city.

Top Brazilian diver Cesar Castro visited the facilities last week as part of the ongoing negotiations, and to give a masterclass to Activity Sheffield diving squad – which with 18 months still to go illustrates how current Olympians are inspiring the young people of Yorkshire.

Castro said: "The facilities in Sheffield are absolutely perfect, we have everything we need to dive here and more. Ponds Forge has the latest camera technology that we need to train.

"I hope to come back here again to train before the Olympics in 2012."

York may not have the legacy or the status of a Leeds or a Sheffield, but the Olympic team in the North Yorkshire city have taken a different tack in how they bring a little piece of the Olympics to their residents.

The Olympic teams of the West Africa countries of Gambia and Guinea-Bissau have already signed up to use York as a training base, and with the West African block traditionally travelling to major events en masse, teams representing Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Cape Verde are expected to follow suit. That would bring a total of 150 athletes and support staff to York in the build-up to the Games.

"What we do is invite these countries and teams over to look at the facilities and see what the city and the county has to offer," explained Julie Gatenby of Yorkshire Gold, the manager responsible for leading the region's 2012 team.

"The logistics have got to be right for them; the right facilities, the correct resources etc."

So how much money will this bring into the local economy?

With budgets stretching all the time on the construction of the Olympic Park in Stretford, administrators at a regional level are less inclined to set targets.

The forecasts are that the 10 current squads signed up to Yorkshire, including the four British teams, will generate 2.5m.

That money comes from costs to hire the facilities and the money poured into the local economy through hotels, transport, recreation and culture used by the athletes and their support staff.

It is not a huge amount, but when considering the timeframe and the fact Yorkshire is behind only the south west and south east regions in attracting nations to base their preparations there, it is a positive start.

Gatenby said: "From the British camps that are already here we are constantly generating income for the economy. With the likes of the US diving team for instance, that will be more of a spurt of income that is generated.

"Everybody is very happy with the 2.5m we've generated, and outside of that there is the promotional benefit that offers. That figure is a good starting point and there'll be a lot more with negotiations ongoing with other camps.

"Participation-wise, as a county we will have our own athletes to support but we will also be able to follow the athletes who have used Yorkshire as a base.

"For instance children who have watched the American divers on their doorstep in Sheffield can root for them in the Games."

From a spin-off point of view, participation in sport is up six per cent among adults in Sheffield over the last three years, according to a recent report. The average national increase was only 0.5 per cent.

And as well as actual physical exertion, there are other Olympic avenues for Yorkshire folk to explore.

The London Organising Committee's appeal for volunteers for the Olympics, or Games Makers as they are known, was taken up by 250,000 people with interviews for the 80,000 volunteers needed beginning next week.

Gatenby said: "A substantial amount of those applicants came from Yorkshire, representing a good spread across the region."

And the famous Olympic torch relay, run throughout the 80 days before the Games, will take in a 'sizable chunk of Yorkshire' with applications to take part in that prestigious Olympic ceremony also open.

London's hosting of the Games also has a knock-on effect on education, with 51 per cent of schools in Yorkshire signing up to the 'Get Set' education programme which teaches Olympic values in schools.

Together with a competition to design Yorkshire's regional mascot and a government-backed School Games pilot to be staged in Harrogate on July 3, there is much for the people of the White Rose to embrace about the London 2012 Olympic experience.

Money talks as companies look to cash in on Olympic contracts

SPORT these days is rarely about just that, sport.

Whenever there is intense competition on a global scale, the issue of money is never far behind.

And there is nothing more lucrative than an Olympic Games, particularly one on your own doorstep.

The bidding process costs millions, the construction billions, but what is there for the people of the north financially regarding the 2012 Olympic Games in London?

Plenty, as it turns out.

For a total of 700m worth of work on the Olympic Park and the production of the Games is scheduled to go out to tender to companies across the country, of which 450m is still available to bid for.

Gary Verity, chair of Yorkshire Gold, the county's committee for London 2012 and Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: "2011 is another big opportunity for Yorkshire to bring business from the Games to our county.

"There are still contracts worth 450m to be won across a huge range of products and services – everything from flowers for the medal winners to sand for the volleyball courts. These are all opportunities for companies here."

Forty companies in Yorkshire have already won contracts to conduct work on Olympic projects, with several more businesses benefitting from those deals as sub-contractors down the supply chain.

One of those businesses is That Company Called If, a gift products company in Pickering, which has won the contract to produce the official souvenir bookmarks for London 2012.

They have already taken on extra staff and are planning on the building of a new warehouse on the back of the added exposure winning a London contract has earned them.

Hull-based ARCO won a three-year contract to provide protective equipment including eyewear, gloves, safety footwear and high visibility vests for the Olympic Delivery Authority responsible for the park construction. For businesses in Yorkshire, there are gold medals to be won.

Yorkshire Gold is hosting a business exhibition on February 16 at the Royal York Hotel in York.

"There's a lot of work going on across a lot of sectors throughout the region," added Verity.

Sheffield on track to be a city of sport in 2011 with busy calendar

The city of Sheffield is billing 2011 as its 2012.

It is an advertising campaign that has nothing to do with an alarming decline in numeracy skills, more a recognition of the amount of top quality sporting events taking place in the city this year.

As well as the staples of the South Yorkshire sporting diet – Wednesday, United, the Steelers, the Sharks, the Eagles and the World Snooker Championships at the Crucible – the Steel City this year plays host to a number of events that will feature in the Olympic programme in 18 months and which will yield between 6m and 7m for the local economy.

It begins this weekend with a double header. From today until Sunday, Sheffield hosts the British National Diving Cup at Ponds Forge, while continuing until Sunday at the English Institute of Sport, there is the Open English Table Tennis Championships.

Jessica Ennis headlines the Indoor UK Athletics Trials and Championships at the EIS on February 12-13 before in March the best players in British table tennis return for the National Championships.

Tom Daley leads an international cast at Ponds Forge in the latest leg of the World Diving Series on April 15-16, in a month when the disabled swimming championships and the Yorkshire International Show Jumping event take place.

It's the turn of the top synchronised swimmers in Europe from May 20-22 while the British Swimming Championships and the European Volleyball League at the EIS are the highlights in June.

If you fancy a bit of swashbuckle in your life then head down to the EIS on July 15-20 for the European Fencing Championships while the British Judo Championships are staged from October 15-16.

For fans of winter sports, world and British championships for short track speed skating take place in March and April.

"It's a big year for us, with lots of big events and lots of big names coming to town." said Ben Brailsford, Sheffield Council's 2012 delivery manager. "People from the city are getting the chance to see these competitors up close before the Olympics."

For ticket details and information visit www.welcometosheffield.co.uk/events