Sir Steve Redgrave has challenged Britain to become the first Olympic host nation not to suffer a major fall in gold medal performances following the London 2012 Games.

The five-times gold medallist has been appointed the Olympic Legacy Champion with the aim of ensuring a permanent improvement for both elite sport and grassroots participation.

Redgrave says Britain should not follow the usual path of Olympic host nations by allowing elite sport to slump in the years following their Games.

Britain came fourth in the medal table in Beijing and have the same target for London. Redgrave believes the legacy of London 2012 for elite sport should be to stay in that area.

Redgrave said: "It happens in every Games - after the excitement of the build-up, resources are reduced, there is not quite the same focus and performances start to drop off.

"Australia found that in Beijing last year, although they still did pretty well.

"I want us to be the first Games to get up to the level of fourth, fifth or sixth in the medal table and maintain that.

"We are not going to compete with the top three, but four to six in the medal table is up for grabs and that's where we should be permanently.

"Being 10th as we were in Sydney in 2000 is just not good enough and I hate to think where we were in Atlanta when we won just one gold.

"We would hope to win around 25 golds in London and after that we should be winning 15 to 20 outside our own Olympics which would give us fourth or fifth position permanently.

"We have to put infrastructure together now as there will not be as much Government money involved."

Redgrave said the other challenge was to encourage more people to be active beyond 2012.

He added: "The other side of legacy is touching as many people from now to 2012 and making sure they are still be active. The grassroots is very important."

Redgrave conceded that legacy had tended to fall between the different organisations involved in preparing for London, but that he aimed to give the issue more focus.