Education reforms will damage future medal prospects, according to bodies including British Cycling and UK Athletics
Sports governing bodies that helped Team GB's athletes to unprecedented success at the London Games have warned that government plans to revamp secondary education risk marginalising school sport, damaging future medal prospects and the hoped-for Olympic legacy.
The umbrella group for all governing bodies in the UK including the Football Association, British Cycling and the UK Athletics Association has said the new English baccalaureate would downgrade sport in schools and compound a "worrying" decline in the number of teenagers studying PE at secondary school.
The protests, also contained in the Sport and Recreation Alliance's submission to a Department for Education consultation on the proposed qualification, have been echoed by many in development positions in sports that delivered Olympic success.
"Over the last four years, the number of pupils taking PE at GCSE level has dropped by a third. To ensure we do not marginalise sport and creative subjects, we believe they must be included as a sixth pillar of the new Ebacc qualification, in addition to the five core subject areas proposed by the government," said Sport and Recreation Alliance chairman, Andy Reed.
"By limiting the Ebacc to five core academic subject areas, there is a real danger that PE will be sidelined by head teachers as they focus on achieving success in the league tables. The variety of career pathways open to young people will be restricted, and the development of sporting talent in the UK could be undermined."
Concerned arts grandees recently called for creative subjects to be given the same status as the five "core" subjects included in the Ebacc and Reed fears sport could be similarly marginalised. "The failure to place PE alongside subjects like languages and humanities will compound the worrying decline in the number of teenagers studying PE at Key Stage 4 and beyond," he said.
The fears over the Ebacc are part of a wider debate about the future of school sport. Education secretary Michael Gove dismantled a national network of school sport partnerships when he axed £162m in ringfenced funding in 2010. It was partially reinstated following an outcry, but £65m to pay for the release of secondary teachers to primary schools one or two days a week runs out at the end of this academic year.
Politicians including the prime minister were highly visible during a Games that delivered the best British medal haul for more than a century, but practitioners such as Jon Glenn, head of youth and community at the Amateur Swimming Association, said: "The government needs to start showing by its actions that it values physical activity.
"School swimming is one of the activities that will continue to be sidelined if PE isn't given greater priority. At least 200,000 pupils are leaving primary school not being able to swim, and only a small percentage of these children will then get an opportunity to try again at secondary.
"Not being able to swim can narrow people's options to take part in all types of sport and physical activity, like canoeing and sailing, and it has a has a significant impact on their safety."
Simon Dickie, youth and community manager for British Rowing, said failing to give PE equal weight with other subjects would inevitably have an impact on the talent coming through the system.
"In simple terms, undermining PE may lead to fewer rowers and result in fewer Katherine Graingers or Steve Redgraves winning multiple medals at the Olympics. We would hope that London 2012 will give the government and schools the confidence to invest in high quality physical education," he said.
The government has ringfenced £500m in exchequer and lottery funding to invest in elite sport in the run-up to the 2016 Games and the funding agency UK Sport will announce on Tuesday how it is to be distributed.
Meanwhile, grassroots body Sport England on Monday unveiled plans for investing £493m through governing bodies over four years.
But while Sport England has a new remit to encourage more 14- to 25-year-olds to play more sport, there are fears the investment will be less effective if teenagers are already out of the sporting habit by then.
There is particular concern over the provision of sport in primary schools. A recent study showed that more than a third of children about to leave primary school are obese or overweight and too few primary school teachers feel comfortable taking PE lessons.
Labour this week released a School Sport Action Plan, calling for Ofsted to play a greater role in monitoring sports provision and reintroduction of a mandatory two hours of sport for every pupil.
The shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, recently called for an urgent cross-party consensus on policies to get more of the population physically active, amid fears that the "post-Olympic moment is slipping away".
Lord Coe, who promised the Games would "inspire a generation", is believed to have made making progress on the issue of school sport, one of his priorities in his new role as legacy adviser to the government.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "We've always been clear that pupils should take the qualifications that are right for them and the English Baccalaureate will not prevent any school from offering subjects that their pupils want to study.
"PE remains a compulsory part of the national curriculum up to the age of 16. We want more young people to take part in competitive sport so they lead healthy and active lifestyles and learn how to work as a team. That is why we are putting competitive sport at the heart of the new school curriculum, extending the School Games and spending £1bn on youth sport over the next five years."