The decision to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been welcomed by former Sports Minister and Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park lead Richard Caborn.
The organisers of the Games, due to begin on July 24, have agreed to a one-year postponement of the event because of the global coronavirus pandemic.
“We welcome the move. It is the right decision for the sportsmen and sportswomen, including the many who train at our facilities on the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, said Mr Caborn.
“Clearly new plans for those athletes will have to be made. The Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, further down the line, will have a big part to play in the changed build-up to the Games now likely to be in 2021.”
Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was established in the wake of the 2012 London Games to deliver an Olympic legacy through the four themes of sport, community, economy and environment. The innovative multi-million-pound park in the Attercliffe area of the city provides world-class sports, education, health and leisure facilities.
On the 60-acre Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park are the English Institute of Sport Sheffield (EISS), iceSheffield, Altitude, Don Valley Bowl, the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), Oasis Academy Don Valley, UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park campus, as well as a number of other facilities.
The newly opened Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) is set to create innovations that will ‘improve the health of the nation.
Mr Caborn added: “Through its its current facilities like the AWRC and those planned such as the Centre for Child Health Technology, Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park will help in the period after Coronavirus, in helping improve people’s quality of life.”
For more information, visit www.sheffieldolympiclegacypark.co.uk, follow @OLPSheffield on Twitter, like Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park on Facebook or search Legacy Park Ltd on LinkedIn.
