Merry Christmas From The Sport Industry Group
The Sport Industry Group would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. The festive season marks the end of an exceptional year for the UK industry – 2013 has a lot to live up to!
And exceptional it certainly was, London became the first city ever to host the Olympic Games three times, selling 8.8 million Olympic tickets and over 2 million Paralympic tickets, as well as breaking tv and online viewing figure records. On the track, we saw Usain Bolt become the first man to retain the sprint double, who also took part in the first sub 37-second relay.
Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah fed off the Olympic Stadium atmosphere to create one of the most spectacular evenings of British sport ever, backed up by a Team of athletes that secured 65 medals for the host nation, while the Paralympic team closed a summer of sport with 120 medals.
Away from the Games, Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour de France, Andy Murray ended a 76-year wait for a British male grand slam winner, Chelsea claimed London’s first UEFA Champions League title, Manchester City stole the Premier League crown from their neighbours on goal difference in the final seconds of the season, the England rugby team crushed the world champions, the cricket team finally tasted victory in a test series in India, Rory McIlroy won his second major and was a part of a European side who triumphed, somehow, at the Ryder Cup in the USA.
The achievements from British sport this year saw the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist extended from 10 to 12, with reports of a separate honours list for our Olympic and Paralympic heroes.
2012 has certainly been a remarkable year for the industry too, echoed by a record amount of entries received for the Sport Industry Awards 2013.
The daily news service will return after the festive break, on Wednesday 2nd January.
Good luck, and best wishes, to all in 2013.
