Linford Christie is a busy man. Standing in the middle of a council estate in South London surrounded by autograph-hunters, Britain’s greatest sprinter is giving something back. The sun is out and mothers and fathers are telling their children about the way things used to be when Christie was winning gold medals and British athletes were a force to be reckoned with.

“The kids now are not as determined as we were,” Christie, 47, said. “They think first of all about the money rather than the races. In our days when someone said ‘I’ve got you a race’, the question you’d ask would be, ‘What lane?’ Now you say to one of these kids, ‘I’ve got you a race’, and they say, ‘How much am I going to get paid?’ They want it before they have achieved anything.”

For the first time, a Great Britain team without an individual reigning Olympic, world or European champion will be competing at the World Championships, in Osaka, Japan, this month – something that would have been unthinkable in the glory days when Christie was winning Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth 100 metres gold medals between 1986 and 1993. “If you are in sport and you are thinking about money, you are not going to make it,” Christie said. “The first and most important thing to do is go out there and perform.”

Christie was not naming names, but anyone who doubts the wisdom of his words should have been at the Norwich Union London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace on Friday when Britons such as Mark Lewis-Francis were happy to finish fifth in the 100 metres behind Tyson Gay, of the United States. Lewis-Francis’s time of 10.31sec may be good enough to win him a place in the Britain squad, but if he goes to Japan he will be making up the numbers.

“We hated losing,” Christie, who now coaches and runs a sports management consultancy, said. “We were embarrassed to lose because of our pride. You have to think for yourself. They’ve got nutritionists, they’ve got all these people doing things for them and they don’t have to think. If you want to be a good athlete, you have to think. When the chips are down, you are on your own. These youngsters now, it’s all done for them.”

The only shop open on the Durand Close Estate, in Carshalton, Surrey, is doing a roaring trade selling drinks and ice-creams as children queue up to compete in 60-metre races organised by Christie and Darren Campbell as part of their Street Athletics initiative. The Sutton Arena – a £4.3 million leisure centre rebuilt in 2003 with an indoor running track – is a five-minute walk away, but Campbell is not interested in finding the next Olympic champion.

“I grew up on a council estate in Moss Side [Manchester] and when you come from the kind of place I come from it’s important to go back and inspire people,” Campbell, a gold medal-winner in the 4 x 100m relay at the Athens Olympics in 2004, said. “Me and Linford are hands-on. We are not just names on flyers. The event is on and we are here, setting up the equipment and signing the autographs and posing for photographs – there is nothing as powerful as this. When you finish one of these events and a young kid tells you that it has been the best day of his life then you realise that what you are doing is worthwhile.”

The ink in Christie’s pen is running out as four teenagers step forward to have their pictures taken with the former sprinter whose career ended on a low note when he tested positive for nandrolone in 1999. Christie smiles for the camera. “Choices are a dangerous thing,” he said. “Kids today have got a lot of choices and we didn’t have that. I was discovered when I was seven. I was one of the lucky ones because there were kids who were faster than me, but the teachers saw something in me – I didn’t want anyone to beat me. It was my pride.”

Streets apart

— Linford Christie and Darren Campbell came up with the idea for Street Athletics when the former Olympic gold medal-winners were trying to “put the world to rights”.

— The project, which is run by Nuff Respect, Christie’s management company and funded by £276,000 from Sport England over the next three years, gives under-20s an opportunity to show how fast they are over 60 metres in their own back yards. Christie and Campbell have organised and attended 20 heats.

— The winners of the heats are invited to the National Street Athletics final in Manchester next month, when they can win a one-year kit contract with Reebok and mentoring from Christie and Campbell.

— More information is available at streetathletics.co.uk