What makes most sports so popular is that if you show a real talent from an early age it shouldn’t matter who you are or where you come from, whether you grew up in a council house in Camden or a mansion in Marylebone, you should have just as much of a chance to make it.
However recent analysis of Team GB’s performances at the Beijing Olympics has shown that more than 50% of the medallists, including triple gold medal winner Sir Chris Hoy, came from private schools, meaning half of the medals came from just 7% of the population.
Chairman of the British Olympic Association Lord Moynihan (who was Oxford educated, but I’ll skip the irony for now) described it as the ‘worst statistics in British sport’, and also called for an immediate overhaul of school sports policy.
I was quite amazed to find out that this was the case and it does, for some Olympic sports anyway, shatter the myth that anybody can do it.
Throughout the games so far the message has been that it’s not just about the two weeks of competition, it is about leaving a lasting legacy and inspiring future generations to get active and take part in sports, but looking at the statistics maybe you should look at your postcode first before deciding what sport to do.
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