NHS doctor who won Olympic gold tells Labour conference sport is ‘miracle cure’

Imogen Grant said that she sees unfit patients ‘every single day’ working as an NHS doctor.

Great Britain’s Emily Craig and Imogen Grant celebrate with their gold medals during the ceremony for the Rowing Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls Finals at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on the seventh day of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in France. Picture date: Friday August 2, 2024. (PA Wire)

Sport is a “miracle cure” that can “transform” people’s lives and communities, an Olympic gold medallist has told delegates at the Labour Party Conference.

At the summer Olympics in Paris, Imogen Grant won gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls, with team mate Emily Craig.

Ms Grant, who is also a junior doctor, told the Labour conference in Liverpool that she got into rowing while studying at Cambridge after trying several sports throughout her life, as she advocated for more opportunities for young people in sport.

She said: “Too many people are like me. They think sport isn’t for them for one reason or another.

“Maybe they try the sports that are available in their schools or their local clubs and it just doesn’t quite light that spark. For some it’s the cost, the petrol to drive to practice.

“Maybe their nearest facilities are too far away. Maybe the facilities have been run down and there aren’t enough volunteers to coach,

“And for some of them, there isn’t the pathway either. They can’t see what they want to achieve, even if they’re dreaming of it.”

Ms Grant said that she sees unfit patients “every single day” working as a NHS doctor.

She said: “Almost 40% of adults in this country don’t meet the bare minimum standards for physical activity. Just 30 minutes of walking or equivalent, five times a week – almost 40%.

“If physical activity were a drug, it would be called a miracle cure for how effective it is and we need to make sure that that miracle cure is available to as many people, adults and children across the nation.

“So that’s why sport transforms. It’s good for our physical health, it’s good for our mental health, and it’s good for our communities as well.

“It’s why grassroots facilities are so vital to be a place where children and adults can go to do something other than stress or study or work.”

Taking out her Olympic medal, Ms Grant recalled being inspired by getting to hold a Paralympic medal after the 2012 Games in London.

She said: “One of the most incredible things since then has been me being able to share my own medal with young children.

“Being able to place this in kids’ hands across the country, in adults’ hands across the country, for them to feel that weight of this medal and what this piece of metal means, and seeing that spark of inspiration that maybe they will be at Olympic Games in another 12 years’ time.

“For me, sport is my passion, and passion is culture. Culture is what the lifeblood and tapestry of this country is.”

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said Ms Grant “absolutely sums up the spirit of our country”.

She said: “Successive Tory governments running down our rich and proud heritage in arts and music and the right of every child to it.

“At the stroke of a pen: enrichment funding in schools, gone. Libraries, theatres, youth workers, gone. That lifeline for young people, broken.

“The promise of a generation inspired by sport, broken. This is what cultural vandalism looks like. And Conference, it ends today.”

Ms Nandy referred to the Football Governance Bill and legislation to crack down on “ticket-touting” as moves the Government are already implementing.

She told delegates: “We are about to kickstart the charter review to ensure the BBC survives and thrives well into the latter half of this century.

“And we’re working with the TV industry to ensure it becomes far more representative of the country, with decision makers who hail from every nation and region.

“We’re about to kick off a review of the Arts Council to ensure arts for everyone, everywhere because we will never accept that culture is just for the privileged few, to be hoarded in a few corners of the country, and we will never accept there is a trade-off between excellence and access.

“We will hand back power to communities to reclaim their cultural assets and historic buildings so they have a vibrant future, not a forgotten past.”