The Olympic Games, factchecked

The 31st Olympics are over. In the early hours of Monday morning – UK time – the Olympic flag was handed over from Rio to Tokyo, ready for the 2020 Games.

Team GB won 67 medals at Rio, including 27 golds.

Was this the UK’s best overseas Olympics ever?

“Jason Kenny and Laura Trott gold medals ensure Rio 2016 Olympics is Great Britain's best overseas Games”—Evening Standard, 16 August 2016

 Excluding Olympics which took place in London, Team GB won more medals and more golds in Rio than at any other Olympic games since they were founded in 1896.

That said, the number of events has increased over the years too. In 1896, at the first modern Olympics, there were 43 events. In Atlanta 20 years ago there were 271, and by 2016 in Rio there were 306.

The closest that the UK’s athletes have ever got to matching this total overseas was at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, with 47 medals including nine golds.

The UK has hosted the Olympics three times, each time in London (1908, 1948 and 2012). British athletes won more medals in 1908 and more gold medals in 2012 than they have in Rio, but these are the only occasions this has happened.

In 1908 we won 146 medals, of which 56 were gold. In 2012 it was 65 medals including 29 golds.

Has the UK ever finished above China in the medals table?

“China have become one of the dominant nations in the Olympics since their debut in 1984. In that time, Great Britain have never finished above them in the medal table.” —BBC Sport, 21 August 2016

 The People’s Republic of China first officially competed at a Winter Olympics in 1980 and at a Summer Olympics in 1984.

Since then, the UK has never been above China in the official medal table. The closest we ever came was at the 1988 Seoul Olympics when both countries won five gold medals each. China got more medals overall, though, with 28 to the UK’s 24.

In 2016 the UK came second in the medal table, behind the USA and ahead of China for the first time.

In what sports has the UK won the most medals over the years?

“The British specialisms are cycling, rowing and bits of track and field”—Financial Times, 16 August 2016

Athletes representing the United Kingdom have won 864 medals since the modern Olympics began in 1896. Almost a quarter of them have been in athletics. Between 1896 and the end of the Rio Games, British athletics representatives had achieved over 200 medals and 55 golds.

In 2016 this included races like the 5000m and the 4x400m relay, as well as the heptathlon, hammer throw and long jump.

Just counting gold medals, our next most decorated Olympic sports are rowing (32), sailing (27), track cycling (24) and swimming (21). Counting all medals, boxing would make the top five instead of cycling.

The historic pattern holds true for Rio: Team GB won multiple gold medals in athletics, rowing, sailing and cycling, as well as equestrian and artistic gymnastics.

Some sports have been included in the Olympics much longer than others. Sports such as swimming, rowing and boxing have all been included since some of the earliest games of the modern Olympics.

But judo, for example, was introduced first in 1964, and women’s judo only in 1992. Rugby had been included in the earliest Olympics, but was not seen between 1924 and 2016. Rugby sevens made its return at the Rio games.

Different sports also have different numbers of medals on offer. At the Rio Games, for example, there were 47 different athletics events and 36 swimming events. In contrast, sports like golf, water polo and BMX cycling only had two events.

How much funding does Team GB have?

“Huge lottery cash funding, which works out to about £4.5million per medal, has transformed UK sport.”—The Sun, 22 August 2016

UK Sport committed £274 million specifically to Olympic sports and almost £73 million to Paralympics sports over four years. This money comes from the government and from the National Lottery. It’s then allocated by UK Sport to sporting organisations and to Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

£4.5 million per medal would have been correct for the London Olympics (£264 million, 65 medals), if you don’t count the money spent on sports where no medal was won. The equivalent figure for 2016 was almost £5.1 million.

Rowing, cycling and athletics received the most funding. Tennis, golf and rugby sevens are not funded by UK Sport, but were included in the sports targeted for medals.

UK Sport has been provided funding for sports across the UK since 1997. In the run-up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it spent around £69 million. Funding has kept increasing ever since.

Most of the money paid out by UK Sport goes to the ‘National Governing Bodies’ of sports, so that they can arrange training and support staff, or directly to individual athletes.

This money for the athletes comes directly from the National Lottery and can be up to £28,000 a year if that athlete is a medallist at the Olympics or other World Championships.

The British Olympic Association , which selects and organises the team, receives no money from the lottery or the government. It’s all privately funded.

What’s in a name?

“Why is it Team GB and not Team UK?” —Trending Google question, 22 August 2016

Team GB is the brand name adopted by the British Olympic Association.

But rather than just representing Great Britain – England, Scotland and Wales – the team includes athletes from the fourth country within the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and the UK Overseas Territories.

The name ‘Team GB’ doesn’t cover all of these groups. ‘Team UK’ would be more accurate, but it still wouldn’t describe everyone in the team.

The British Olympic Association gives two main reasons for the choice, aside from the fact that both GB and UK are imperfect descriptions. It says that the International Olympic Association has always recognised the team as ‘GBR’ or Great Britain, and ‘Team GB’ is a stronger brand when it comes to fundraising.

Is there an age limit for competing in the Olympics?

“There are no general age limits set for the Olympics across the board.”—Mirror, 15 August 2016

This is right. The Olympic Charter, which sets the rules for the Games, says there is no specific age limit for competing in the Olympics. It depends on the rules laid down by the global governing body for each sport.

For example, the International Gymnastics Federation says that all gymnasts must either have been born before the end of 1998 or 2000 to compete in Rio, depending on the event or their gender.

In tennis, the rules say that all competitors must be 14 years old by the time of the Olympics.

To compete in cycling events athletes must either be 18 to compete in track and BMX events or 19 years old to compete in the road and mountain bike events.

What kind of schools do Olympians go to?

“Private schools remain over-represented among Team GB Olympic medal winners, with about a third of medallists in Rio educated at fee-paying schools”—Guardian, 22 August 2016

“More Rio medal winners were state-school educated”—BBC News, 22 August 2016

32% of Team GB’s 130 Rio medal winners went to private schools, according to social mobility think tank, the Sutton Trust.

60% of medal winners went to comprehensive schools and 8% went to grammar schools.

This trend varies widely depending on which sport you look at. 92% of the medal winners on the cycling team went to comprehensive or grammar schools, compared to 48% of the medal winners on the rowing team.

The proportion of UK medal winners who went to private school has decreased since the London 2012 Olympics. Four years ago 36% of medal winners went to private schools and 56% went to comprehensive schools.

But the Sutton Trust also pointed out that the number of UK athletes at the Olympics who went to private schools, including those who didn’t win medals, has increased since 2012, from 20% to 28%.

As of January 2015, roughly 7% of English school students attended private schools.

Update 24 August 2016

We updated this piece to include information about the kind of schools Olympians go to.

Image courtesy of Scazon