British Sports Personalities: What Was their Education?

February 16, 2022

• Topical

Continuing on this blog series exploring cultural icons and their educations, the next field we are surveying is British sports personalities. We have selected a range of famous sports men and women from different disciplines and have taken a look at their educational backgrounds.

First let’s break down the subjects these sports personalities studied.

What is immediately evident is the popularity of studying science, with 44% of those that studied at university choosing a science degree. This is hardly surprising when considering the link between science and sport, with a knowledge of biology and the body, as well as physics and forces, being important to the sportsperson. What is perhaps more surprising was the popularity of humanities, with several sports people choosing to study law, politics and History.

Interestingly, of the 17 sportsmen and 13 sportswomen included in this survey, only 18% of the males compared to 85% of the females attended University. While it is only possible to speculate as to why this is the case, it perhaps down to the fact that women’s sport has traditionally held a lower status than men’s sport, making it a less viable career path for women. This in turn perhaps means greater numbers of women go to University to take advantage of the sport available there and keep their future options broad, rather than going professional young. Certainly, Rachael Blackmore attended the University of Limerick and studied Equine Science while competing as an amateur jockey on the side. She became a household name this year after her successive wins at Cheltenham festival and in the Grand National.

This perception of women’s sport is changing, as female sports have received greater media coverage and began generating a greater body of supporters. There is no telling how different this data could look in 20 years-time!

Those that didn’t go to University often began their careers in professional sport. David Beckham was signed with his first club Manchester United at the age of 17.  Similarly, Mo Farah began his professional career young and didn’t go on to formally graduate from University, but he has maintained a close relationship with St Mary’s Twickenham where he took courses, lived, and trained, before his career progressed.

Importantly, even if you didn’t attend university in your youth, this is not to say you cannot go. This is evidenced by Johanna Konta who as of March 2021 is enrolled in a business course at Harvard.

This shows, just as the previous blogs in this series have, that there is no binary route to success. Many professional sportsmen and women chose not to go to university and take the professional route but 47% still attended, proving it is possible to continue your education and partake in top level sport. Even if you do not go to university and later on change your mind, Johanna Konta’s return to study business highlights the possibility of doing it later in life.