Sheffield is catching the eye of major international cities as top-level investors and government officials from overseas visit to experience best practice examples of ‘Olympic Legacy in action’.
The Olympic Legacy Park Sheffield’s (OLP) vision has triggered visits by delegates from Kawasaki City, the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chinese Olympic Committee and the China Institute of Sport Science.
Representatives from Kawasaki City, a host city for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and home to Team GB's 2020 pre-Games training camp, visited with a vision to create lasting Olympic Legacy following the 2020 Games.
All were impressed by the world-class facilities including the English Institute of Sport Sheffield (EISS) which supports World Champions such as Anthony Joshua, and Olympic and Paralympic athletes like Will Bayley.
The 35-acre site is also home to iceSheffield, the Don Valley Bowl, Oasis Academy Don Valley, and UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park campus. Most recently work has been completed on the 3G pitch on the OLP site.
A further delegation of 20 top-level Chinese investors and government officials included the Mayor and Vice-Mayor of Xuzhou, a former industrial city in the Jiangsu province of China.
Sheffield was chosen as an example of a city with an industrial heritage which is transforming into a high-tech, high-growth economy, and the OLP was presented as a showcase for this regeneration.
Upcoming visits also include officials from the Netherlands Association of Sports Medicine (VSG) in October and the Japanese Ambassador in November.
David Hobson, project director for the OLP, said: "We’re honoured to be welcoming so many officials from all over the world and we’re proud they are coming to us to see Olympic Legacy in action.
"Our Legacy vision is becoming a reality with the site, and its world-class facilities for sport, health, education and research, really beginning to take shape now.
"As the biggest project of its kind developed outside London following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, countries across the world are turning to the OLP to learn from our experience and replicate the innovative model we are creating in Sheffield."
SIV Chief Executive Steve Brailey MBE said: "There is enormous interest from across the world in how Sheffield is managing its Olympic Legacy. The planning for this began way before 2012 and the benefits of that are now being seen.
"The SIV facilities – iceSheffield and the English Institute of Sport – which are part of the Olympic Legacy Park, are world-class in their own right, but when we add them into what else is happening on the OLP then we really have something even more special to tell people about."
The OLP is being developed in the east end of Sheffield and will be home to a cluster of health, sport and education facilities. The Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) on the OLP will be the most advanced research and development centre for physical activity in the world, creating 'innovations that help people move' in sport, healthcare, physical activity and leisure.
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