APPARENTLY young people are put off sport because they do not want to get wet, dirty and sweaty, the poor things, and if you don't mind they would rather not mess up their hair.

Now there was a day, back through the mud-smudged lens of time, when I would have agreed with them. Not any more, though. These thoughts first turn over in my mind when the chill rain of laughable July whips across the open fields near Strensall and my legs move obstinately on. It is true that for a weary moment I think of the boots the Russians have invented, boots with petrol-powered pistons that propel the wearer to speeds of 25 miles per hour.

Such boots would put a spring in my step, but because running is meant to be about achieving something with your own unwilling flesh, sluggish blood and complaining muscle, I won't send off to the Russian military for a pair of their Billy Whizz-style boots, even if they would see me through the Great North Run in record time.

According to a new survey carried out for Sport England, many schoolchildren are wimps who hate playing games because of all that rain, mud, sweat and untidy hair. These are not the only sporting rituals disliked by today's youth, who also resent having to learn new skills, changing in front of their peers, and showering after sport. Many young people prefer looking good and playing computer games to all that bothersome physical activity.

This antipathy to sport follows what Trevor Brooking, the ex-England footballer and chairman of Sport England, sees as "an extremely significant decline in the traditional 'British fighting spirit' in sport".

As usually happens around this time of year, when England has lost at football and cricket, and when our only contribution to the Wimbledon finals has been to send in the dependable English rain that stopped play, a bout of soul-searching ensues. Yet as our countless defeats mount up, we should not worry about our future sporting heroes but fear for the sort of unhealthy adults our children may become.

Sports stars are all very well, but it is no use concentrating on the talented elite if the masses are left to grow prematurely fat on the sofa. As the slogan used to have it, sport should be for all - and not just those few sickening people who are any good at it. After all, they can look after themselves.

These sentiments come, as you might suppose, from someone who was once the biggest wimp and sporting dunce of all. Sport at my grammar school was a form of humiliation, a horrid seasonal round of dodging deadly cricket balls, slipping through the mud in rugby, trying not to come last in assorted athletic pursuits, and - most dispiriting of all - cross-country running.

And yet now this sport-hating, cricket-detesting, rugby-loathing boy has grown into a man who, while still possessing the sporting talents of a brick, enjoys running and plays squash just for the purple-faced fun of it.

Trevor Brooking, with the leaden predictability of the professional sporty type, blames young people's hostility to sport on "too many years of non-competitive sport in schools, where everyone was congratulated for merely turning up and taking part".

What Trevor forgets is that non-competitive sport, while perhaps misconceived, was brought in with the good intention of encouraging everyone, rather than just celebrating the golden few. And that worthwhile aim should not be lost.

For the best that sport can do is teach children how to keep fit for life while enjoying themselves - even if they will never play for their country.

Mind you, it is true that the modern pupils' dislike of showers can make life difficult in the classroom.

One teacher I know describes the distinctive pong that arises after sport as a heady blend of sweat, perfume and after-shave.

An open window is usually called for.