DAME KELLY HOLMES says recent female successes, such as the Olympic medals in Beijing and the triumphs of the England cricket team, will dry up before the 2016 Games unless there is greater encouragement.

She wants more women to hold prominent positions in national governing bodies so they can stimulate greater media coverage and commercial opportunities, while encouraging more physical activity, especially among teenagers.

The Athens Olympic 800m and 1500 gold medallist is worried that a failure to help more females to take part in competitive sport will lead to a dearth of successors to people such as swimmer Rebecca Adlington, heptathlete Jessica Ennis, cyclist Nicole Cooke and cricketer Claire Taylor, who was player of the tournament when England won the women’s World Cup this year.

“We need to give confidence to females and invest in them,” Holmes says. “You only have to look at the women’s cricket team this year to see what can be done. Over the next few years, we have a real opportunity to develop sport, starting with the [Delhi] Commonwealth Games next year. Then we stage in this country the London Olympics, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, the rugby union World Cup and possibly the football World Cup in 2018.

“We have to have more women at the top so that their influence can filter down. Governing bodies should be using the expertise and professionalism of their retiring sportswomen to help guide them in their decision-making.” There is a paradox in that three of the most important posts in British sport are held by women: Tessa Jowell is Olympics minister; Dame Sue Campbell chairs UK Sport; and Brigid Simmonds heads the Central Council of Physical Recreation, representing the national governing bodies (NGBs). But Holmes points out that only one in five members of the boards of the leading NGBs is a woman, and 10 boards do not have a female member. In addition, only 22% of national performance directors are female.

Holmes has been involved with what she terms “both ends of the spectrum”, helping elite athletes as well as young females who are not committed to competitive sport. Of the latter, she says: “Physical activity for them can give added self-confidence, self-esteem, and I have been emphasising the camaraderie, the social side of doing things together. By engaging with young people, they learn discipline and other life skills.

“The competitive group are completely different. Aged between 17 and 23, they are focused and driven. And when they get older, they can be leaders. They can challenge people and could reach the top in business. And they, too, acquire life skills.”

Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, says: “The eyes of the world will be on British sport in 2012. It needs to be modern and progressive, and, at the moment, it isn’t. It is true that progress has been made. Detractors are losing the argument. Beijing was seminal, not only because so many medals were won by females but also because research shows that more women than men watched the Games in Britain on television. We need to get NGB boards where at least 30% of the membership is women. There are now two women on the England and Wales Cricket Board, although they don’t have voting rights.”

Tibballs believes the lack of diversity in administration prevents sport from fully engaging 50% of the population and harnessing a huge commercial potential. The foundation has set up a commission, of which Holmes is a member, to work over four years, looking at the need for more women as leading administrators and at the potential for sponsorship and a higher media profile.

“A lot of women’s sports in this country do not get very good strategic advice,” Tibballs adds. “In New Zealand, a determined effort was made to make netball the No 2 sport in the country. Real investment was made and now the players are household names.

“Obviously the more high-profile females we have, the more girls are likely to take up those activities. Rebecca Adlington and Jessica Ennis are brilliant role models. Girls, after all, leave school being half as active as boys, and over 80% of women do too little exercise to benefit their health.”

• Dame Kelly Holmes is mentoring talented young female middle-distance athletes through her On Camp With Kelly initiative, supported by Aviva. For more information, visit www.oncampwithkelly.co.uk

Explore More Sport

• Athletics

• Boxing

• Cycling

• Sailing

• US Sport