Gordon Brown called for an end to the medals-for-all culture in schools yesterday as he announced plans to widen the choice of sports available to pupils, encourage more girls to take part and give all children the chance of five hours of sport a week by 2012.

Mr Brown, speaking in Beijing before the closing ceremony, took a sideswipe at left-wing education authotities of the 1970s and 80s, saying that the Government had started correcting the “tragic mistake” that had seen the competitive element in school sports cut back.

He spoke of the Olympic fate of Shanaze Reade, the BMX cyclist who crashed out of her event on the last bend as she made her bid for victory, and said: “She was not happy with the silver medal. She went full throttle for the gold. I think that is the sort of spirit we want to see in our schools, not the medals-for-all culture we have seen in past years.”

That culture had not worked. “In sport you get better by challenging yourself against other competitors and contrasting your performance. The competitive spirit is essential.”

In his last Budget Mr Brown allocated £100million over four years to build more school and community sports facilites and train more teachers to help to reach the goal of five hours of sport a week for all pupils. Part of the time will be in the curriculum and some outside.

This week Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, will announce that more than £30million extra will be ploughed into that campaign as the Government tries to build on the spirit of Beijing, The Times understands.

Mr Brown also said that the Government was trying to increase the diversity of school sports, giving pupils the chance to learn at an early age sports such as canoeing, cycling, boxing and the martial arts, in which Britain has done well in this Games.

He also announced that Dame Kelly Holmes, the double gold winner at the Athens Olympics, will head a task force of Britain's female Olympic stars to come up with ways of encouraging more girls to take part in sport. She is to ask Rebecca Adlington, the swimming double gold winner, Victoria Pendleton, the gold-winning cyclist, Christine Ohuruogo, the 400m gold winner, and Beth Tweddle, the gymnast, to help her. In his chats with athletes at the weekend, Mr Brown urged Ms Tweddle not to go throgh with her plan to retire.

Mr Brown said that by having more facilities, more girls in sport, more competition and five hours sport for all a new generation of winners could emerge, inspired by the “heroes of Beijing”.

He admitted that the target of five hours was ambitious but said that there had been a big change in attitudes in the past few years, with 90 per cent of pupils now doing two hours a week. In 2003 only 25 per cent of youngsters were achieving that.

He told of how Bradley Wiggins, another double gold winner, had been inspired to cycle after watching Chris Boardman win at the 1992 Olympics. Now he was one of the greatest cyclists of all time. Thousands of young people watching the Beijing Olymics might be inspired to develop their sporting talent to become Olympians one day or just to become good at sport. The Government wanted to help them to do that.

Mr Brown said the London Olympics would be different from Beijing but the Chinese authorities had set high standards for the quality of their organisation of a sporting event. He hoped both Olympics would lead to greater participation in sport, leading to a fitter nation with less obesity.

He wanted the Olympic legacy to be extending opportunities for sport across the country.

“We want to see, over the next four years, a transformation of the sporting culture in our schools, giving young people opportunites in a whole range of sports that they had never had before.”