Why do so many independent school pupils make the Olympic team?

There has been a good deal of discussion in the press in recent days about the number of athletes in the British Winter Olympics team who have attended independent schools. An example is this article in the Times from Matthew Syed(http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article7020963.ece )
These articles suggest that success in achieving this level in sport is down to parental income or class.

This is far from true in my opinion. Currently I am reading the book ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell. He looks at successful athletes in a wide range of sports and he finds that there are two crucial factors in sporting success. The first of these is one’s date of birth! His thesis is that those players who are born just after an age-group date cut-off are much more likely to be the most successful athletes of the future. So, in football the eligibility date is September 1st and in the year he looked at in the Premier League there were 288 players born between September and November and only 136 born between June and August. This he claims is because the older athletes get more opportunities, hence more chance of success and we write off too many athletes too soon.

His other theory is that it takes 10,000 hours to become world class in any sphere. Thus, the more opportunity one has to get involved the greater the chance there is to be successful.

This brings me back to the fact that so many competing at Olympic level come from independent schools. This is no great surprise given the amount of time and effort independent schools devote to school sport. Most independent schools recognise the value of sport and spend many hours on it. Thus, it is no surprise that the increase in opportunity provided by the sector means that so many world-class athletes emerge. Indeed my own school has two ex-pupils competing at the winter games as well as one who competed in the last summer games.

The way to rectify this situation is to increase the support for sport in all schools. In independent schools fixtures are played every Saturday and for us we ensure depth by putting out up to four sides in each age group. Thus, there is every opportunity for the most able to thrive as well as for all to enjoy their sport. Sadly, there are few maintained schools still offering regular fixtures every single weekend of the school year. Some pupils will go to local sports clubs but others will be lost for good to the X-box and Playstation.

Of course, many independent schools do try to open up their facilities to such clubs. In my school our cricket coaches are involved in a number of inner-city primary schools trying to ensure that there is greater opportunity for all. In this way we hopefully start some more pupils on their way to the 10,000 hours we are told that they will need to be successful. There are maintained schools, I know, where sport is still important but successive governments have sold off playing fields and cut curriculum time for sport and this as much as anything is why so many athletes at the Olympics hail from independent schools.