Why does private education produce so many medal winners?

[EternalOptimist]

Germany are doing pretty crap in the Olympics this year which is quite interesting as although sports in schools here, I personally find, is pretty crap but a heck of a lot of German children do sports outside of schools and are encouraged by their parents. Every town has numerous sports clubs with the facilities, for example this one near me has facilities for 24 different sports yet they're still not doing very well, does this put paid to the arguments discussed (or just bandied about) here about parents support (or should Germany disunite and allow the East to get back to doping?)

winning golds in the olympics is all very well, but its not the be all and end all.
having a bunch of healthy kids who just enjoy running around and having fun is much more important

[Old Greg]

winning golds in the olympics is all very well, but its not the be all and end all.
having a bunch of healthy kids who just enjoy running around and having fun is much more important

Exactly. I find this obsession with being high on the medal table as a nation very peculiar. It's smacks of totalitatrian regimes looking for a propaganda coup.

It's interesting to compare China and India on this score.

[Doggy Styles]

Because it proves some of the traits of this thread wrong. Actually a new thread could be started "Why are state schooled sports people some of the highest earners?" and just put a list of the Premier League?

No it doesn't. For that you have to compare:

What proportion of medalists went to fee-paying schools

What proportion of people go to fee-paying schools

If more fee-payers win medals than expected under random distribution, the whole tenet of the thread is fair.

It's not about simply listing those medalists who went to state schools.

[Doggy Styles]

Actually it doesn't. Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford, Mo Farah, Andy Murray .... I don't see a lot of private education there. Just a lot of achievers who don't need privilege to make it.

So let me ask this instead: why do so many people claim that private education produces better results? Could it be that they have a political axe to grind, more important to them than the facts?

Have you heard of the term 'statistics'?

[Sysman]

Why are medals, especially gold medals, won more often than relative population would imply, by people from Scotland and Yorkshire?

'Cos we're determined and tough.

It could also be that sports clubs are more affordable and parents don't spend half their lives sitting in traffic jams.