Who could have seen this coming?
At a north London gym on a recent evening, Claire Palmer was busy pounding her gloved fists into a punching bag.
To raise money and get fit, Palmer is trying all 30 Olympic and Paralympic sports in the next year — and boxing is on this month's schedule. Palmer, 29, is taking part in the Gold Challenge, a charity challenge trying to get people more active by the time the 2012 Olympics roll into town.
She admits the program is a hard sell to many Londoners: Britain has the fattest population in Western Europe, with about half of all Britons overweight. Physical activity levels have largely stagnated in recent years.
"For a lot of people, it's very easy to make excuses about why you can't exercise," she said. "I think it's fantastic the Olympics are coming, but not everyone thinks that."
That's something British officials are finding out. When London was awarded the 2012 Games, the government promised it would get 2 million more people physically active by the time the Olympic torch is lit.
With fewer than 500 days to go, that looks highly unlikely.
"Based on the current figures, the target will be met sometime around 2023," said Mike Weed, director of the Centre for Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research at Canterbury Christ Church University. According to national exercise surveys, only about 127,000 more people have become more physically active since 2007.
British officials insist the goal can be reached. Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Games, said the problem may be that they are not collecting the right kind of information to prove their goal is being met.
Here is the right kind of information:
Brits 'dying not to do exercise'
Most UK adults are so unwilling to exercise that not even the threat of an early death is enough to get them off the sofa, a survey suggests.
Only 38% of people questioned by YouGov said they would do more exercise if their life depended on it.
The British officials are idiots.
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