Dame Kelly Holmes is backing Conservatives
plans for an annual Schools Olympics that will be modelled on the Kent School Games.

The double Olympic gold medallist travelled to Manchester on Wednesday to tell delegates at the Tory party conference about the importance of competitive sport in school.

Dame Kelly, who also attended the Labour Party conference a week earlier, highlighted the Kent School Games -y -the only event of its kind in the countr as the ideal model of a countywide multi-sport competition.

She said: “People want to be touched by the Olympics but they want something left (afterwards). They want to feel they were part of the dream, journey and investment.

“I'm very passionate about what happens in Kent and there is a model there I absolutely believe in.

“Last week I launched the 2010 Kent School Games. Heats and semi-finals are now taking place involving 30,000 young people, 500 schools and 38 sports, all accumulating in a final next July.

“I believe that if a model like that can work in Kent, with all those people engaging in it, then it should be all over the country.

“If we could copy that model so every county can host their own school games, replicate the amount of young people in those sports, and then have a massive school Olympics, then that is what should be left.

“It is not just for the young people taking part. School teachers will be motivated to get behind this, parents will see their young people enjoying sports and communities and local authorities will come together.

“My challenge is for someone to put on a Schools Olympics. That is one of the things that should be left after the Games in 2012.

“I want to see something credible, something we can all get behind, that the nation says it was started because of the Olympic Games and is still here 10years later.”

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow secretary of state for culture media and sport, said that under a Conservative government, a national sports competition would run every year, climaxing in finals held at the Olympic Stadium.

Mr Hunt said: “Let’s democratise the Olympics. Let’s not just have them in the stadium in London for three weeks only.

“Let’s have them in every school, in every town, in every city and every county not just in 2012 but every year from then on.

“Let’s use the London Olympics to bring back school sports league tables, with a proper system of town, city, regional and national heats.

“Let’s use 2012 to bring competitive sport and sporting values, within the grasp of all young people.

“The values of competitive sport are crucial in creating a society that brings out the best in young people. This initiative will allow us to use 2012 to bring competitive sport and sporting values within the grasp of all young people.”