The betrayal of our talent and our future

At bid stage, what gave us the edge over Paris was the commitment to seeing the Games as a truly national success: the greatest test of human physique and stamina would transform the nation's involvement in sport and its health. No more would we be a nation of couch potatoes.

Each of the nine English regions produced its own Olympic plan for the legacy. There was some excellent, original thinking. For example, the Yorkshire Gold plan was exceptional, joining up the work of local authorities, business, sports organisations and schools in a programme that would have delivered real economic and health benefits. Then in 2006, Sport England set out an agenda to achieve a target of two million more people engaged in sport by 2012.

Such goals now seem a distant hope. I resigned in disgust from Sport England in December last year after the then Culture Secretary, James Purnell, interfered over sports funding, reducing the emphasis on grassroots sports participation. Today the situation is no better.

Yesterday's report warns that there is a danger of there being very little sporting legacy at all. All those detailed regional plans seem to be absent from current planning. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has scrapped Sport England's regional boards. Political lobbying watered down Sport England's aims. Its new target for 2012 is for another million people to be involved in sport - half what we were aiming for two years ago.

In 2005, the Carter Report, produced by my predecessor at Sport England, exposed the extent of under-investment in sports facilities throughout the UK. If that report was re-researched today, I suspect that, despite having had the prize of 2012 for three years now, we would have gone backwards.

To make matters worse, grassroots sport will be deprived of funding as cash is diverted for the Olympic Park. This will make it difficult or impossible for the Government to achieve even its new, more modest target by 2012. Lottery funding for sport is now down to £250 million a year - almost a third of what it was in the early days of the National Lottery.

Meanwhile, people get fatter - and then need expensive NHS treatment. Sport could help stop them getting obese in the first place. There's the evidence of what sport can do for teenagers in tough areas, such as Midnight Basketball, operated in up to five London boroughs, which offers basketball from 9pm to 2am, interspersed with rap and other music, which has been shown to reduce crime.

Where is the dynamism across government to ensure a legacy of healthier people and safer neighbourhoods through sport? We really should not be planning the Games' sporting legacy now - it should have already started.

Government mismanagement is to blame. There is confusion and duplication of responsibilities - too many cooks, and none capable of cooking three courses. Having Olympics minister Tessa Jowell in the Cabinet Office, while sport sits within the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, communicating with the separate fiefdoms of Health and Education, means that no one is ultimately responsible.

There is a lot of time-wasting, too. Throughout my time at Sport England there were petty squabbles between political advisers and civil servants. While not doubting their sincerity and commitment, I recall desperate discussions as to whether "sport" should be defined as games with a referee and players wearing a strip, or whether a broader definition should apply to include, for example, street dance, an activity that often keeps young adult women physically active. Street dance may not have a governing body but as a work-out, it ranks very high. Regrettably, the conservative definition won out.

If the Games are to have a real sporting legacy, we need to move fast. First, facilities are key. At the Sydney Olympics, more than 90 per cent of Australian medals were won by athletes from a privately educated background. The same applies somewhat in the UK, especially in certain sports. It isn't hard to see why: it's a question of the availability of facilities and excellence in coaching. The amounts of money needed are not large compared to the overall Olympic budget. A little funding would, for instance, re-open some of the swimming baths closed across London, and make the promised free swimming for under-16s a reality.

Ministers and sports bodies need to stop the inane discussions about whether cycling is a transport issue or sport, or whether walking is a sport, leisure activity or transport: they are all physical activity, which is what matters.

We could do far more closer to the Games through volunteering. On my trip to Athens to learn from their lessons, I found that Australian volunteers arrived three months before every Games and provide the majority of the volunteering. Why can't we have volunteers from all over Britain, put up in Londoners' homes?

Above all, we need leadership. The whole of Government has to see this as the greatest opportunity it will ever have to boost participation in sport. We need a cross-departmental commitment to maintain our Olympic promises. It should include the departments of culture, health, transport, schools and the Home Office at a minimum.

We should reinstate the two million people participation target, measure progress towards it, and make ministers accountable if they fail to achieve it. And the person leading it must be the Prime Minister: come on, Gordon, this is a real opportunity to lead from the front.

When we sit watching the opening night of the London Olympics, will we have used this opportunity to have change our national quality of life? Or will we be a nation of even fatter people, with sport still dominated by those with privileged access to sports facilities? I know which I'd like to see. But if we continue to prepare for the Games' legacy as we are now then we will have very little to show in the long term.

Derek Mapp was chair of Sport England 2006-07.