UK sport NGBs leveraging of London 2012 for organisational capacity building

This report presents the first study on the engagement of the host country’s national governing bodies of sport (NGB) with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The project was designed and implemented by Dr Vassil Girginov from Brunel University and supported by Sport England and UK Sport, who provided valuable advice and logistics. In particular, the study examined how NBGs leveraged the Games for capacity building by strengthening a range of core capabilities in an interconnected and holistic manner.

The UK government has made a commitment to use London 2012 to make the UK a world-leading sporting nation (DCMS, 2007). This promise could not have been achieved without developing the organisational capacities of NGBs who form the backbone of the UK national sport system.

The study interprets organisational capacity as an emergent combination of attributes, assets, capabilities and relationships that enables a NGB and its members to perform, develop and self-renew, and to create developmental value. Capacity involves five core separate but interdependent capabilities including the ability to act, to generate development results, to relate, to adapt and self-renew and the ability to achieve coherence.