Why does private education produce so many medal winners?

[gingerjedi]

It's because fatcher sold off the playing fields innit.

Discus

[sasguru]

Those who have attended public school are the elite and have better genes. Don't know how Dodgy slipped through though.

Seriously though, yes they have better facilities, sport is heavily encouraged to the extent that non-sporty types are shunned, excellence and competitiveness are encouraged rather than played down. Simples

[BrilloPad]

I suppose the threat of buggery every night encourages one to run fast.

[MyUserName]

They can afford better facilities and can pay for better staff.

[Durbs]

They can afford better facilities and can pay for better staff.

This. I went to public school and sport was a large part of the curriculum and culture. So where the kids at Pikey High were having the odd game of soccer and rounders, we were geared up for Rugby, Cricket, all the Track 'n Field events and we even had a pool and played water polo. The school also did regular cricket and rugby tours to SA and other far flung places.

[Mich the Tester]

Because we had porridge for breakfast, shepherd's pie for lunch and lots of fresh fruit and veg while the state school kids were getting fat on coco pops, burgers and chips.

And some other reasons that others have named.

[Old Greg]

Maybe the parents encourage them more?

Maybe the system produces more psychopaths?

Maybe sports included in Olympics favour those with access to élite facilities.

Charlie Brooker's take on it - I like the dressge comment:

Charlie Brooker: The Olympics

I have no idea why some things qualify as Olympic sports and others don't, though there's an obvious and heavy class bias in favour of things you can imagine royals doing in a tapestry, such as archery or dressage. Falconry would surely be included if Ken Loach hadn't depicted a commoner doing it in the film Kes. You need your own castle grounds to practise half these sports. No wonder a disproportionate number of our victors thus far seem notably posh, apart from Bradley Wiggins, the first member of Oasis to attend a London comprehensive school and win four gold medals.
Not to do traditional blueblood sports down, but surely becoming a world-class Battlefield 3 multiplayer competitor involves as much skill and dedication as teaching a horse to mince like a 1970s sitcom homosexual in the anachronistic "dressage". And Battlefield 3 has a far lower financial bar-to-entry, as does darts. Or hide-and-seek. Crazy golf is a huge missed opportunity too. Imagine an Olympic-scale crazy golf course designed by the nation's weirdest art students. You'd watch the tulip out of that.

[Mich the Tester]

Maybe the parents encourage them more?

Indeed; perhaps the private schools just do well on the back of the parents' success and attitude. After all, most kids are at least 6 before they arrive at private school and so their parents probably have a greater influence in the end.

[Durbs]

This. I went to public school and sport was a large part of the curriculum and culture. So where the kids at Pikey High were having the odd game of soccer and rounders, we were geared up for Rugby, Cricket, all the Track 'n Field events and we even had a pool and played water polo. The school also did regular cricket and rugby tours to SA and other far flung places.

This also had the downside that kids who weren't sporty had a hard time of it. If you weren't sporty or very gifted academically then you were fecked.

I was a runner, mainly 1500 and Cross Country and because I was on the team, my weekends were owned by the team. I'd spend at least one full weekend day training or competing, I didn't have a choice in that. Hated it at the time but thats another reason, they push you more.

[sasguru]

Maybe the parents encourage them more?

Maybe the system produces more psychopaths?

Maybe sports included in Olympics favour those with access to élite facilities.

Charlie Brooker's take on it - I like the dressge comment:

Charlie Brooker: The Olympics

Nil point. We public schoolers are just better than you commoners. HTH.