Olympic heptathlete Kelly Sotherton says it would be a hammer blow to British athletics if West Ham moved into London"s Olympic Stadium after the 2012 games.
New owners David Gold and David Sullivan are desperate to secure the switch from Upton Park to the 80,000 Stratford arena.
But Sotherton, who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, insists the stadium should remain an athletics venue.
Take a run and jump: Sotherton wants the London Olympic Stadium to host athletics events after the 2012 games
"The legacy should be athletics. It"s out of order that football think they can just come and have it," she said.
West Ham"s proposed switch would follow a similar move by Manchester City after they made the City of Manchester Stadium - the stage for the 2002 Commonwealth Games - their home the following season.
West Ham"s new home: Owners Gold and Sullivan are keen to make the switch from Upton Park
"We don"t have a national athletics stadium and we need one,"Sotherton added. " We lost our last big stadium to Manchester City in2002 after a great Commonwealth Games and the fear is now that we"lllose another one to football.
"I"m a massive fan of football anda big Arsenal fan, but at the end of the day it"s our stadium and Ithink the legacy is to enable us to stage future world and commonwealthchampionships - who knows, maybe another Olympics.
Work in progress: The Olympic Stadium will stage the London 2012 Games
"To have anOlympic stadium turned into a football stadium by a club strugglingnear the foot of the Premier League, it"s out of order."
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