The wavy roof of the distinctive aquatics centre that Olympic organisers hope will house a string of British medal winners, including Rebecca Adlington, was revealed today, as £10m in lottery funding was poured into persuading more women to follow her lead.

Swimming is the number one participation sport among women, and Adlington is one of the stars who organisers, who brought the Olympics to London partly on the promise of leaving a legacy of sports participation, hope will help inspire more physical activity among women.

The unveiling of the framework for the sweeping 160-metre roof on the £244m aquatics centre, designed by Zaha Hadid, is seen as a key moment in the Olympic Delivery Authority’s “big build”. During the games the centre will house two 50-metre pools, a 25-metre diving pool and 17,500 spectators.

Amid a sea of functional designs, the ODA hopes the centre will act as an inspiring “gateway to the games”, the first thing many visitors to the Olympic park will see as they exit Stratford International station. The roof structure, which will now be covered by aluminium, has taken since March to lift into place.

The £10m in funding announced today by Sport England will be concentrated on projects that encourage take-up among women from disadvantaged communities, and helping women with children under 16 play more sport.

“In both those areas, they experience barriers where money and carefully targeted support can make a real difference,” said Sport England’s chief executive, Jennie Price.

Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: “Our sportswomen have had a bumper year and I hope the successes of stars like Jessica Ennis and the England women’s cricket team will inspire more women across the country to make that important first step. There is a sport out there for everyone and this investment will help clubs reach out to women who haven’t found theirs yet.”

At present, fewer than one in eight women regularly play sport in England. One in five men play sport regularly and the gender gap is growing, according to Sport England figures.

“What we have to do is make it easy, accessible and attractive, and to try and play to the kind of things women will be interested in – things you can do in a group and things that have a strong social dimension are really attractive to most women,” said Price.

The aquatic centre building, originally budgeted at £73m, will be reduced to a 3,500-capacity venue after the games. Sport England contributed £40m to the funding of the venue, partly to ensure it had moveable floors making it suitable for community use after the games. But some local boroughs are still angry that it will not contain a leisure pool.

Today’s £10m funding round is the second to be announced this year, with the first targeted at encouraging sport in rural areas. The funding is on top of the £480m over four years that Sport England is investing through sport governing bodies. It has faced some criticism for failing to make much progress towards its government target of getting one million more people playing sport three or more times a week by 2013. Its latest progress will be measured by the third annual “active people” survey, published next month.

According to Sport England, swimming is the favourite participation sport among women, followed by athletics, cycling, equestrian sports and badminton.