Fears that London 2012 will fail to deliver on its promise of rejuvenated participation after the Olympics were raised yesterday by leaders of the two marquee Olympic sports, who said that unless there was a clear policy on this subject, then the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” might be lost.

The London 2012 message, delivered by Lord Coe in Singapore two years ago when London won its bid for the Games, was that London would not only stage a magnificent event, but that it would also drag the youth off their couches and persuade them to get involved. This pledge has almost become the raison d’être of the London Games, yet David Sparkes, the chief executive of British Swimming, and Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, told the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee yesterday that it was in peril of not being fulfilled.

“I sat there in Singapore and I really believed there was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get people excited about the Olympic Games,” Sparkes said. “My concern now is that I don’t believe yet there is anybody who has picked up the legacy ball for sport. Our promise in Singapore was that we’d use this as an inspirational tool to re-engage the youth of this country and the world. That is a really tough call. But who is joining up the dots for all this to work? Where is the drive?” The short answer here is that it is the role of Sport England. The anomaly is that Sport England has had its funding cut to pay for the Olympics.

Or, as Warner said, Sport England has become an organisation with too broad a responsibility. “Sport England should be about sport,” he said. “But Sport England is left trying to kill two birds with one stone, heading participation and health.

“I almost feel sorry for Derek Mapp [the chairman], but it’s absolutely critical that someone cares about the development of sports. There’s a potential funding gap between first-time joggers and elite athletes. This Government is all about simple targets, get more people participating. I’ve heard it said that this Government is all about getting more people to go for a walk in the woods.”

The gargantuan pledge to inspire the youth worldwide is clearly an even greater one, but there is, at least, a specific project at hand, run by UK Sport, which has schemes running in five countries and another 15 planned.

The irony here yesterday was that the likes of Sparkes and Warner were articulating their legacy fears to a DCMS committee when it is the DCMS itself that is charged with the 2012 sporting legacy in the UK. Indeed, DCMS was party yesterday to the launch of Legacy Trust UK, a £40 million fund that is aimed to boost cultural, educational and artistic spin-offs from 2012 as well as those connected with sport. Legacy plans particular to sport were originally to be announced this year, but they have been postponed until 2008.

Meanwhile, uncharacteristic evidence of genuine progress in Olympic sports emerged yesterday from Australia. It is usually British administrators who hold up the Australians as an example of the way forward; however, yesterday John Coates, the president of the Australian Olympic Committee, announced increased funding for Australia’s athletes and, by way of explanation, said that his countrymen were looking over their shoulders to see the Brits fast catching them.

“Our arch-rival Britain has made dramatic advances at our expense, particularly in rowing and cycling,” Coates said. “They are also leading us in track and field and sailing. In these four sports, Britain beat us by 14 medals \ in 2007.”

Fund and Games

£12,000: The maximum “personal award” funding that top medal prospects in the UK are awarded through lottery funding

£9,000: The new, improved maximum available to Australian medal prospects that was announced yesterday

43: Projected number of medals for Britain in Beijing as predicted yesterday by the Australian Olympic Committee. The same was predicted for Australia

6: The joint position on the Beijing medal table predicted for Australia and Britain