Widening the talent pathway in Hockey
Widening the talent pathway in Hockey
The demographics of youth sport talent pathways have for many years, mirrored the impact of privilege, and have historically not been representative of young people across the UK.
In one of our previous news articles from last month - A Games Fit for the Future - we highlighted how this year the School Games National Finals (SGNF) will work with National Governing Bodies to catalyse novel, contemporary approaches to broaden access to talent pathways for athletes from more diverse backgrounds. Hockey is one of the sports committed to broadening the access intent of SGNF 2024.
Hockey is seen as a very traditional sport, a survey back in 2021 found only six per cent of those playing at England Hockey clubs were from ethnic minority backgrounds. Indeed 40% of participants in the hockey tournament at the SGNF in 2022 came from Independent schools, which compares to the overall population attending independent schools of 6%.
As highlighted in the Guardian* ahead of the Olympic Games, the percentage of Team GB athletes who were privately educated has risen since the Rio games of 2016. Of the 318 athletes in the 2024 Team GB squad schooled in the UK, 106 or 33.3% were privately educated, which is up from 24% in the 2016 team that travelled to Rio de Janeiro. 47% of the hockey squad for Paris 2024 were privately educated.
In announcing their SGNF selection policy, Great Britain Hockey have announced they will look to diversify the talent pool accessing the opportunity. Selection principles include where possible asking nations commit to selecting players who are currently in full time state funded education with an aim of achieving an overall target of 75% of participants in 2024 coming from state education.
Statistics such as these show the value of initiatives such as the SGNF in broadening the focus of the event to allow more young people from different stages of their sports pathways to attend and benefit from the experience. This approach is part of a wider strategy to ensure that talent pathways in England are more accessible and inclusive and ultimately create winning England and GB teams which are more representative of the UK youth population.
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