Former Olympian Steve Backley has called for more kids to get out and participate in sport or take part in some sort of physical activity.

The 43 year old from Sidcup was part of the commentating team that brought the Olympics coverage to us all on the BBC over the summer after a glittering career with the javelin that saw him pick two Olympic silvers and a bronze in three Olympic games.

Now working as a motivational speaker, mentoring and working with kids in schools, Backley was part of the panel at the BBC Radio Kent debate on the legacy of the Olympics and KSN caught up with him to find out whether he thought there had been enough done to ensure kids will participate in sport for years to come.

“I would have liked to have seen more in place by now as I was optimistic that the legacy was going to be a huge festival of fun and inspiration, as was the Paralympics and I was hoping we would have had things in place that would have captured that more.” said Backley.

“My experience is that sporting clubs are overwhelmed and have been, but that will dwindle because resources are stretched and that’s tough.”

“It’s more what happens next year and the year after rather than the knee jerk as that’s not really the legacy. The inspiration will come for a child, or an adult for that matter, to go on their journey of success in whichever sport they choose.”

“Legacy is a long term thing and whilst we dwell on the physical side of things like having the facilities right, it’s also about sustaining the inspiration.”

“We need to keep the role models in place, allow the individual sports to thrive, showcase talent, have days where people are encouraged to come and have a try.”

For Backley, one of the biggest attributes sport needs to have at an early stage is having the element of fun to make youngsters want to be involved and he told KSN how that was important throughout a person’s sporting life:

“I think that is what keeps people coming back for more and striving for more. Competition is fun and the last time I checked, kids love competing and they have a laugh if they win or lose.”

“They laugh more if they’ve lost the first time, come back and win the next time. There’s banter then and that creates a lovely playful environment and not a challenging one.”

“The Olympics and Paralympics were fun this year and catching that will engage the youth of the future.”

With the coalition government now looking at going back to more team based sports like football and netball, whilst coming away from allowing children to participate in things such as yoga and zumba, there is a real danger obesity in school children could get worse.

The strategy of getting all kids playing competitive sport is a good one in Steve Backley’s eyes, but he feels it shouldn’t be at the expense of allowing kids that aren’t sporty to participate in other forms of physical activity:

“The last time I checked neither zumba or yoga weren’t sports. It’s all about physical exercise and that’s about engagement, having fun and it has an entertainment element as well as a physical challenge to it.”

“It’s important that we don’t throw both sport and physical exercise into the melting pot and we tend to and that’s part of the squeeze in terms of time available in schools.”

You can hear the full debate on the BBC Radio Kent breakfast show on Friday morning, with a longer version to be aired on Friday evening and on Saturday afternoon.