ABSTRACT
Women’s boxing became legitimate at the 2012 London games following some debate about whether it should or should not be included. In the discussion, which follows I focus on this particular example which is expressive of change, albeit incremental, but nonetheless contested, change, in the 2012 games. Legacy, in terms of increased participation in sport or higher success rates, for example, in medal capture in future international events and as expressed by breaking past records, is more usually measured quantitatively. For example, to take the case of women’s boxing, legacy could be seen as being secured through increased numbers of women training at gyms and engaging in the sport competitively, with ultimate expression in a greater number of medals being won at Rio in 2016. I use the case study of women’s boxing in order to explore an example of the possibilities of cultural and social legacy as expressed in the promises of the present which are projected into the future. In doing so, I aim to suggest an additional strand to the understanding of legacy, whereby the future is not simply defined as either a prediction made in the present or utopian dreams, but also as informing what opportunities the present affords for transformations, widening participation and greater democracy (Woodward, 2012b). My example takes an approach to legacy as a cultural inheritance which makes it possible to think differently.
