A YEAR has passed since the greatest show on earth was staged on the county's doorstep, but the Olympic legacy lives on in Essex.
The county was fortunate enough to host the London 2012 mountain biking event at Hadleigh, while the Olympic torch was carried through 17 towns and villages. But in the year that has passed since the London Olympics, sport participation levels are soaring in the county thanks to a host of initiatives and Government grants for sporting projects.
Wheelchair basketball Paralympian Wendy Smith returned to Great Baddow High School to visit Year 7 pupils, exactly a year on from setting up "Be the Best" project inspired by the Games. It aimed to encourage pupils to be their own coaches, raise their self-esteem and strive towards a target, such as getting into a school sports team, or getting a place in the top set of a subject.
The project is tied in with the "Olympic legacy" and is about striving for excellence and aiming to "Be the Best" in everything you do.
Sian Field, personal development coordinator at the Duffield Road school, said: "Throughout the year we have worked with the children on setting achievable goals, recognising obstacles in their way and working through how to overcome them.
"They are quite big ideas we have been working on but the children have done really well with it and have risen to the challenge, they are a very good year group."
Pupil Mark Goss, 12, said: "At the beginning of the year we had to set ourselves a goal. Mine was to get into the A team for football, and I achieved it. I now want to be in the A team again next year."
Fellow pupil Oakley Bromfield, 12, had a double ambition, to get into more than one top set and be the best sportsman he could be. He explained: "I was really inspired by Wendy Smith when she came to our school.
"The doctors told her she couldn't walk but she changed can't into can. She didn't give up and took up wheelchair basketball. I really enjoyed trying the Paralympic sports especially the blind football, as I couldn't believe how hard it was."
This time last year, Mark Springett, a councillor for Moulsham Lodge, was welcoming the world through the gates of the Olympics as part of his role as a Games Maker.
"It was fantastic to see all the smiling faces and great to feel a part of that," he said.
Mr Springett and the other 70,000 volunteers at London 2012 were praised for their integral part in making the Games happen, and according to him, these volunteers is what the county needs to carry on the Olympic legacy properly.
"Volunteers do make up a huge part of running sports clubs and I think that's the sort of people we need to support a growth in sport," said councillor Springett.
"I think they probably think there is not quite as much on offer as they hoped for, but I do think it's affected younger people a bit more than people my age, older people need a bit more encouraging.
"It's promoted an increase in more obscure sports and it is great that there's something different kids can take part in, but with things like swimming it's a bit different."
Clubs which may have had less interest around them before the Olympics are getting bigger, by connecting to people through social networks and offering free trials to people so they can give the sport a go.
Cllr Springett added: "There's the Chelmsford Polo club which I am actually thinking of doing."
