British Olympians back north of England bid for 2040 Games

The north of England’s Olympic pitch is being sold as more than a sporting ambition: ministers will now test whether a 2040 Games could genuinely shift investment away from London, or simply wrap a familiar mega-event in celebrity support and public expense. The government commissioned UK Sport on 17 May 2026 to assess cost, socioeconomic benefit and the bid’s chance of success, while arguing that major events can drive economic growth, regeneration, pride in place and the UK’s global appeal.

The campaign gained heavyweight backing from some of Britain’s best-known Olympians and Paralympians. Dame Laura Kenny, Sir Jason Kenny, Dame Sarah Storey and Tom Pidcock signed a joint statement alongside Laura Weightman, Marc Scott, Susie Rodgers, Krysten Coombs, Rob Davies and Poppy Maskill, with Beth Tweddle, Sir Brendan Foster, Steve Cram and Allison Curbishley also among the signatories. The group said the North had “a passion for sport like no other place” and “world-class venues”, and argued that the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Association’s multi-city model made a distributed Games more viable than ever before. They cast the proposal as a “Great North” Games, a national Games that could bring the country together and create a moment of renewal and confidence for the UK in 2040.

The effort built on a February 2026 letter from northern mayors and leaders, coordinated through The Great North, asking Lisa Nandy to commit in principle to any future UK Olympic and Paralympic bid being based in the North. Their case was that the region already had elite sporting venues, major stadia and arenas, transport hubs, accommodation capacity and broadcast and creative capability. They also pointed to a deep hosting record, from the Manchester Commonwealth Games and major football tournaments to the Great North Run, Rugby League World Cups, The Open, Ashes Tests and the Grand National, with the Tour de France route due to cross Cumbria, Liverpool City Region and Yorkshire in 2027 and regular world-snooker events in Sheffield.

Nandy has said London 2012 inspired a generation and that it was time the Olympics came North. The political calculation now is whether that ambition can be made to add up economically. The government’s wider sports-led regeneration push, including a Stadium Regeneration Accelerator and references to Elland Road as a site for new homes, business opportunities and public spaces, suggests ministers want the Olympics framed as an investment lever as much as a prestige project. Yet the North’s advocates still have to prove that a Northern Games would leave a durable legacy in transport, skills, housing and cultural infrastructure, rather than repeat the old pattern of concentrated costs and diffuse promises. Manchester’s failed 1993 bid for the 2000 Olympics, which went to Sydney, remains the warning in the background.