Sir Steve, winner of five Olympic gold medals, was reacting to the £162 million ($260 million) of cuts to school sports budgets which were announced by the Department for Education in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) last month.

The cuts, confirmed by Education Secretary Michael Gove in a letter to Youth Sport Trust chair Baroness Sue Campbell, included vital funding for a network of School Sport Partnerships.

Gove stated that while the network helped schools to increase participation rates in the areas targeted by the previous Government, he claimed the proportion of pupils playing competitive sport regularly had remained "disappointingly low".

But Sir Steve, speaking at the launch of Matalan's Sporting Promise today at Sport City in Manchester, warned that with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games less than two years away, there has never been a more important time to be increasing sporting opportunities for young people.

The former rower said: "Matalan Sporting Promise is all about getting more youngsters involved in PE and sport.

"It's about giving them the very best opportunities to access sport and make sure that sport is delivered in a way that's fun and enjoyable for young people of all ages and abilities.

"In these difficult economic times it would be easy to see how school sport could become less of a priority.

"However, sport has a unique ability to transform lives - it can build self esteem and confidence in young people, it can increase achievement and attainment at school and it plays a huge part in ensuring young people lead healthy, active lives."

Matalan Sporting Promise sees retail giant Matalan partnering with the Youth Sport Trust to start up a new initiative to get more young people taking part in sports.

The launch today sees over 200 schoolchildren taking part in some of the exciting sports that the programme will deliver, including parkour, the free-running craze.

The Matalan Sporting Promise aims to get kids active by providing support to schools on two levels.

At primary level, it provides resource and training that will help teachers to deliver high quality PE and sport.

It also aims to re-engage those secondary school pupils who are not attracted to traditional sports by offering a range of new and exciting sporting choices.

Over 3,000 schools and 15,000 teachers will benefit from Matalan Sporting Promise in the first year, with a view to covering a huge number of schools over the next three years.

Paul Gilbert, chief executive of Matalan, said: "In the same way that Matalan's core belief is to provide access to quality products for everybody, with great service all delivered in a pleasurable shopping environment at a great price, we also want to provide that same freedom from compromise when it comes to everybody's access and availability to participate in sport.

"As a family retailer, we are really proud to be involved in such an obviously worthwhile programme, which we truly believe can provide a great impact within our store communities."

Steve Grainger, chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, added: "We know that when PE and sport is good, the gains for young people and for our society at large are significant.

"We are delighted that Matalan share our passion for sport and by working in partnership with them we will encourage many thousands more young people to get involved in sport.

"While in undoubtedly challenging economic times, it is fantastic to see that a retail giant like Matalan understand the enormous benefits of sport and support the power it has to unite, inspire, motivate, and challenge our young people."

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