The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games aimed to promote physical activity across the UK, with the view to vastly improve levels of participation.

Previous research carried out by spear highlighted that the role of the Games should be seen in terms of wider initiatives and strategies, with two different strategies depending on whether the aim was to get those who currently participated in sport, a little more, or to encourage the least active to think about becoming more active.

Having commissioned the original research, the Department of Health was keen to explore how its findings might be best put into practice. spear was commissioned to develop an evidence-based guide to inform strategy and practice to develop a physical activity, sport and health legacy from the 2012 Games. The guide, Active Celebration: Using the London 2012 Games to get the Nation Moving provides an overview of the demonstration and festival effect process and shows how they can match values associated with the Olympic and Paralympic Games with the value of target groups through initiatives with Olympic and Paralympic themes.

‘Active Celebration’ not only answers key questions, such as how the Games can inspire people to be more active and how best to support those with most the gain (least active), but also provides evidence based suggestions for a range of initiatives, showing how these recommendations can be put into practice. 

Date: 2011

Client: Department for Health