We're about to embark on another glorious summer of sport, but for much of the population the exploits of Jessica Ennis-Hill in Brazil and the England men's team in France will have little impact on our everyday lives.
We know why, we've all seen the headlines: girls and women are not doing enough sport or exercise. Despite the increased visibility of female sporting role models, we're in the middle of an obesity crisis in this country and it's women and girls who are most at risk. Only 12% of 14-year-old girls do enough exercise, meanwhile one third of girls aged 12-15 in England are deemed overweight or obese. The estimated impact on the nation as a whole is startling: physical inactivity costs the UK economy £7.4bn a year.
The question is - why do so many women and girls have such a dysfunctional relationship with sport? While women's sport is more visible than ever (though still not visible enough, accounting for just 2% of all sports coverage in newspapers in 2013), why are we still getting it so wrong at grassroots level?
As someone who consistently bunked PE lessons throughout secondary school, now I'm a mum I find myself thinking a lot about how to make sure my daughter's relationship with sport and physical activity is a more positive one. Because although the policies are changing – such as the FA raising the age limit for girls and boys to play football together to 18 years – the culture is not.
I came across far too many depressing stories while researching for Eat Sweat Play. Like the mum who told me her eight-year-old daughter hates playing football in PE lessons because the boys refuse to pass to the girls and so they end up standing around getting cold and bored. Or the bright young football coach who told me that England women's success at the World Cup last year brought girls to his Under-10s football coaching sessions, but no matter how good they are the boys still won't accept them. Meanwhile, on my local parenting message board, mums lament that their five-year-old daughters cannot join a football session because the boys taking part are already so advanced the girls would be sidelined before they even start.
These examples are significant because they refute the common assumption that the problems for girls and sport begin at puberty. While periods and boobs are a barrier for girls taking up sport, or continuing to be active, the roots of the thing are much deeper.
With my own daughter I've watched how from a very early age a myriad of factors gave her the message that sport and being physically strong is for boys, while dolls and domestics are for girls. Comments from parents, images and slogans on kids' clothing, stories in books, programmes on TV…it's an anti-sport cultural assault that ensures young girls know that getting sweaty, muscular or powerful is not for them.
And so, in the summer of 2013 before she had even turned two years old, it was fascinating how she reacted to seeing England women on the TV at the European Championships. For the first time ever my daughter sat staring at the match, all those ponytails bobbing up and down the pitch. Girls! Like her! Playing sport! It was the first time she properly concentrated on a game of football.
Thank goodness then that Tracey Crouch, sports minister, has slashed the national sports strategy age target – from 14 years old to five – in an attempt to engage children as they start school. Because if we expect future generations of adults to do 150 minutes of exercise a week to stay healthy, then we've got to engender the habit in our kids first.
But while schools and sports coverage all play their part, arguably the most important role models of all are parents. Running down the street together, kicking a ball in the park, cycling, swimming, talking about sport and exercise, finding women's sport to watch on TV, or in the local area – all give girls the message that sport is for them. But with 75% of women telling Sport England that while they would like to play sport, fear of judgement stops them from having a go.
We've got to break the cycle somewhere though, and if children see their mums doing sport and exercise, they will likely follow in their footsteps. And who knows where that could take them. Laura Trott might never have won two Olympic gold medals had her mum not taken up cycling to lose weight.
And perhaps, similarly, Laura Trott's mum might never have taken up cycling if she didn't have children to be a role model for. That's the beauty of parenting. Sometimes our children motivate us to confront our biggest fears, even if it's a lifetime of PE dodging, in order to make a change for good.