BEIJING, Mar. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- An official with the Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BOCDA) suggested the government increase investment in campus sports facilities and that public sports venues should be open to students to help them improve their deteriorating physique.

Since the opening-up policy, implemented since 1978, the indexes of Chinese youths' height, weight and nutrition levels have increased, Jiang Xiaoyu, a vice president at the BOCDA said on the sidelines of a CPPCC conference Monday.

In the meantime, statistics from the Ministry of Education and the General Administration of Sport from 1985 to 2010 showed that some indexes including speed, strength, eyesight and lung capacity have been declining over the past 20 years, he said.

"I'm worried about youth physique in some areas. For example, their poor eyesight has ranked top in the world," he said.

"The longer they study, the poorer their eyesight will be," Jiang said.

"Most of them were not born with poor eyesight. The problem is they spend little time on daily sports and most of their sports time is taken up by other courses for pursuing a good grade," he added.

Jiang said, during his survey in a big city with 2,000 primary and high school students, only 38 schools had a qualified 400-meter track field.

"Without a qualified place for students to have sports, how can they improve their health?" Jiang asked. "Building a powerful nation in sports also means all citizens regard sports as part of everyday life."

Jiang also predicted that China will enter the top three in the London 2012 Olympic Games in the UK.

He said that China will lose the advantage of being the host country for the 2008 Olympic Games, during which China took top spot at 51 gold medals.

Athletes from other European countries will adapt to the UK due to the similar climate, time differences and life style with their home countries, he said.