Olympics boosts sailing

Sport England has just published a study showing that the Olympics did indeed increase participation in sport - by as much as 750,000, as reported here and here.

And you'll be glad to hear that sailing too has received a boost, with weekly participation rates (at least 4 days over last 28 days) up a good 23% on the previous year!! Woo hoo!

The study also published the rates for the last six years which shows a much bigger rise in 2007-8, also a Olympic year, but then a gradual easing off.

The total rise over the 6 years is a rather less impressive 0.6%, i.e. about 0.1% per year.

I suppose we should be grateful it has at least gone up, but the Olympic boost is less than in 2008 when it involvement increased 40% and the new peak is lower.

So the underlying numbers aren't as good as the headline figures are suggesting.

More work still to be done here.