THE SUTTON TRUST has analysed the education backgrounds of the Team GB medallists at the Paris Olympic games. The majority attended comprehensive schools, but athletes from fee paying schools are still disproportionately overrepresented.
The Sutton Trust says that while it is not a perfect measure, school attendence can provide a crucial insight into the social and economic circumstances that top athletes grew up in – with private school attendance in particular strongly related to family income.
Key Findings:
- 33 per cent of Team GB’s medallists attended fee paying schools, down from 40 per cent at Tokyo in 2021.
- Over time progress has not been linear. The proportion of privately educated medallists has gone up and down, with 40 per cent of medallists privately educated in Tokyo in 2021, 31 per cent in Rio 2016 and 36 per cent in London 2012.
- GB medallists are over four times more likely to attend a fee-paying school than the population as a whole. The proportion of top athletes who were privately educated has remained considerably higher than the proportion of the general population who were privately educated (seven per cent).
- 52 per cent of the country’s medallists were educated at comprehensive schools and eight per cent went to grammars.
- Some sports such as rowing, equestrian events and swimming were more heavily dominated by privately educated athletes.
- Eton appears to be losing its previous Olympic dominance. Between 1992 and 2016, an Old Etonian won a medal at every Olympic Games. But there were no Team GB medallists from Eton in Paris, or at Tokyo in 2021 (although an Old Etonian did win a medal for Denmark in Tokyo).
- GB’s top Olympians were significantly more likely to have attended private school than this summer’s men’s Euros football team (15 per cent), and the women’s football World Cup squad in 2023 (0 per cent).
- 60 per cent of GB’s top athletes attended university, an increase from the 55 per cent of medallists in 2021, compared to about 50 per cent of young people going on to university by the age of 30 in the wider population. Two per cent attended Oxford or Cambridge universities, a broadly similar proportion to the population overall (one per cent).
Commenting, Nick Harrison, Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust, said: “The success of Team GB in Paris is fantastic. However, privately educated athletes remain significantly over-represented among our top Olympians.
“Private schools are typically able to invest more in high quality sports facilities, and have access to 10 times more green space than the average state school. At a time when many school leaders are having to cut back on sports and extracurricular activities due to funding pressures, it’s crucial that more is done to ensure all children have access to sports.”
* Source: The Sutton Trust