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A third of the Team GB squad competing in the Paris Olympics went to a private secondary school, research by the Good Schools Guide has revealed.
Of the 327 athletes at this year’s Games – 155 men and 172 women – more than 100 were privately educated, which is disproportionately high compared to the national average.
Currently, around 7 per cent of the UK population have attended a private school.
Nearly one in four (23 per cent) of sportswomen in the British squad competing in Paris attended a single-sex state or private school, while certain sports featured a greater proportion of privately educated athletes than others.
Fifty-two per cent of the rowing squad and 47 per cent of the hockey squad wnt to private schools in the past.
The top three schools with the highest number of alumni competing for Great Britain this time are Plymouth College in Devon, Millfield School in Somerset and Whitgift School in South Croydon.
They are all private and have alumni at the Paris Games who received scholarships and bursaries to attend the schools.
David Osland blamed the disparity on the lack of facilities in state schools like astro pitches, rowing clubs and swimming pools, but according to Grace Moody-Stuart, the director of the Good Schools Guide education consultants, that is “only part of the story”.
“These schools identify talent at an early age and offer places at considerable discounts, often for free, in the hope of helping realise that sporting potential,” she said.
The best set-ups “interweave training and competitions with academic work, and pupils have… seasoned coaches, strength and conditioning teams, nutritionists and sports psychologists”.
Ms Moody-Stuart went on: “For those who can afford it, or who are talented enough to win scholarships, the results are evidenced in the disproportionate number of privately educated sportsmen and women in this squad.”
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