Sir Peter Lampl: How did athletes from state schools do in Rio?

Not only have the athletes of Team GB made Rio 2016 Britain’s most successful away Olympic Games for over a century, they’ve also challenged the traditional dominance of independent schools in elite sports.

Our analysis found that less than a third (32 per cent) of Team GB’s 130 medallists attended fee-paying schools, a four percentage point reduction from London 2012, when 36 per cent of Team GB’s winners were privately educated and Beijing in 2008, when nearly 40 per cent of medallists had been to independent schools.

60 per cent of Britain’s medallists this year—including stand-out stars like cyclist Laura Trott and gymnast Max Whitlock—were educated at comprehensive schools. Eight per cent—including Jack Laugher, gold-medal winning diver, and Joanna Roswell-Shand, gold-medal winning cyclist—are alumni of state grammar schools. Jason Kenny, who is now the most successful British Olympian ever after winning three cycling gold medals in Rio, was educated at a comprehensive school in Manchester.

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