Dame Kelly Holmes returned to her old school today to launch National Youth Sport Week.

The double Olympic gold medal winner was at Hugh Christie,Tonbridge, on Tuesday, singing the praises of her school PE teacher Debbie Paige and promoting the importance of sport in schools.

During the week, which kicks off on the June 30, a record three million pupils nationwide will take part in school sports at the same time.

The idea was born at a meeting between Dame Kelly and the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, when the Olympic gold medallist decided something should be done to celebrate the work schools are doing in sport.

The athlete spoke of the background behind the initiative, which is managed by the Youth Sport Trust.

Dame Kelly said: “There are three aims: to celebrate what’s going on in school sport, to profile new activities and to launch new events that an area might be doing.”

Dame Kelly, who at the launch played sport with some of the pupils, explained why she chose Hugh Christie for the launch: “School sport was why I actually came to school. Debbie Paige, my PE teacher who’s still here was the person who said I could be good and you never forget that. So this is a great place to launch it because it’s real. I loved school sport, Debbie was the inspiration and she’s still here.”