It is said to have inspired a new generation.

London 2012 reignited not only a national but a global passion for sport while uniting communities in the process.

Watching the inspirational athletes and absorbing Britain’s buoyant mood proved the perfect antidote to the negative vibes created by the recession.

The Gamesmakers who stepped forward to assist in this sporting spectacular led to a surge in volunteering. All in all the Games brought the feelgood factor back to Britain and the recent Winter Olympics, and its participants, in Sochi are now carrying on that legacy.

Despite missing a medal in the final of the Snowboard Slopestyle in Sochi, Queensbury’s snowboarding champion Jamie Nicholls secured Britain’s best finish on snow at the Winter Olympics for nearly 50 years in the men’s snowboard slopestyle final and, in doing so, is helping to inspire another generation of potential Olympians.

Jamie was seven when he began snowboarding for pleasure on the dry slopes at the Halifax Ski and Snowboard Centre near his Queensbury home. Having found his forte in the sport, he has since pursued it to the highest level, as a professional, and is now using his talent to inspire other young sportsmen and women to do the same.

In the past week or so, Jamie has been talking about the sport and his Olympic journey at a primary school in Brighouse. He tells me he is keen to do more of the same.

“I just want to do things like that because I’ve had so many requests from schools,” he says.

Since Sochi, Jamie, who is now one of the top 30 riders in the world, is riding on the crest of a wave, although his riding on the slope has been slightly hampered by requests for his autograph!

He was due to do a signing at the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead when we spoke. Jamie became involved in the centre through friends in London. He is an ambassador for the centre and also gets involved with children’s camps, talking about his sport and giving some coaching and tuition.

“I do that as often as I can,” he says.

On Sunday, Jamie jets off again – this time to compete in the the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships in Vail, Colorado, where he will be hoping to better his last year’s fifth-place position. When he returns from there he’s hoping to have a few days at home in Queensbury before jetting off to Austria.

“It’s ace, it’s great, I love it. Everytime I go snowboarding I have the biggest smile on my face and it was like that at the Olympics. I was never nervous, I was just so happy to be there. I was hyper!

“But I never take things so seriously because the day you take things seriously is when things start going wrong. I have as much fun as I possibly can.”

But Jamie is also conscious of how hard athletes work to even qualify for the Olympics. He believes qualifying is harder than competing because of the competition he faced just to secure a place.

He says despite not winning a medal, his greatest achievement was helping to inspire a new generation – and also to raise the profile of snowboarding.

“I watched it on TV when I was younger, I’ve always been into skateboarding, and obviously Halifax (Ski and Snowboard centre) is only five minutes away. We drove past and I said I wanted to have a go,” says Jamie, recalling his initial introduction to the sport he is now helping to promote.

He talks of posting an image of him as a seven-year-old on those very slopes on Twitter following his recent appearance at the Olympics. His aim? To inspire other young people who think they can’t do it.

While Jamie acknowledges the cost of the sport can be prohibitive, he hopes young people will have the opportunity to follow in his footsteps. He credits the support he has received throughout his career with sponsorship from Salomon and Nike.

Since Sochi he says he has noticed more people on the slopes at Halifax where he still goes. Before Sochi there were only a handful – now there are more than 20 hitting the slopes again. “It’s really good to see,” says Jamie.

“I didn’t win a medal, but inspiring the next generation, going to the Olympics and so many people loving snowboarding, it’s almost like that was enough in itself. It’s obviously great to see so many children wanting to go snowboarding.”

For more information, visit jamienichollsuk.com.