Paula Radcliffe last night warned that London would be squandering the opportunity to leave British sport with a legacy that could benefit athletics for generations if it did not retain an athletics track at the Olympic Stadium after it has staged the 2012 Games.
Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, last week reignited the debate about whether the stadium should retain the track when he said it was not vital that it continued to stage athletics after the Olympics, again opening the possibility of it being taken over by a Premier League football club.
But, speaking ahead of competing in today's New York City Marathon, Radcliffe said London officials would be making a 'huge, huge mistake' if that happened. 'How many Premiership football stadiums have we got in the UK and how many top-level athletics stadiums have we got?' she said.
Radcliffe claims indelible memories will be created in the Olympic Stadium in 2012 that could have the power to inspire generations of British athletes. 'If you seriously want to build on the success we will have in 2012 - which we will have, because the fact it is in the home country will inspire people to perform above themselves - and keep that going, then we have to have the stadium,' she said.
'We need to fight to get as many youngsters into athletics because football is way winning the battle already in terms of the media exposure, the profile of the players and attracting kids. We need to work against that and having a good stadium will help. It will help inspire kids to get down on the track running.'
Radcliffe led the critics after the track used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games was ripped up and the City of Manchester Stadium converted into a football ground for Manchester City. 'How great was that track?' said the Bedford runner, who won the 5,000m at those Games. 'When you have a good track, the investment in it and the memories and inspiration inside that stadium, you should keep it.'
The race through the five boroughs that make up New York City marks the start of Radcliffe's own countdown to London 2012, when she hopes it will be fifth time lucky at the age of 38, the same as this year's marathon gold medallist, Romania's Constantina Tomescu-Dita.
Radcliffe finished 23rd in the Olympic marathon in Beijing two-and-a-half months ago after her preparations were hit by a stress fracture of her left femur. Following the disappointment of failing to finish in Athens four years ago because of injury and illness, it means that Radcliffe is still seeking the Olympic medal that would validate her greatness.
Outside of the Olympics, her marathon record is perfect, having won all seven of her other races, including New York in 2004 and 2007, London three times and the 2005 world championships in Helsinki. Her world best of two hours, 15 minutes, 25 seconds is ranked by statisticians as being the greatest female performance of all time.
In Beijing Radcliffe was reduced to tears for the second consecutive Olympics. 'I have never been able to hide my emotions,' she said. 'People say, "How can you bounce back all the time?" But a lot of that is because I can let things out. It makes me look stupid at the end of the race. You have run 26 miles, you are exhausted and emotionally it all comes out. Sometimes I think, "Why couldn't I have done that without bursting into tears?"'
In New York, though, she is always wreathed in smiles. Her victory in 2004 came when she bounced back spectacularly from Athens and last year was her first marathon after giving birth to daughter Isla in January 2007.
'Yeah, I think that's just the way it's worked out,' Radcliffe said. 'I mean, desperately I didn't want it to be that this year. I wanted to be able to come back and defend having had things work out the way I wanted in Beijing. But that didn't happen.'
London 2012 is acting as a powerful motivation for Radcliffe to extend an international career that started 17 years ago. 'For me, personally, it's certainly a huge motivation to really keep going and to get out there and perform well,' she said. 'Because I think that the atmosphere and the support for the Olympics in your home country is an opportunity that I would never, never want to miss.'