вЂњI think that Canada and other countries that emphasize elite sport through the diversion of public resources should re-evaluate this practice,вЂќ said Lawrence. However, certain sportsВ вЂ“В such as equestrian, sailing, cycling, and rowingВ вЂ“В consistently favoured white and privately educated athletes. While Summer Olympic athletes demonstrated greater diversity in ethnicity and affluence, athletics (track and field), basketball, gymnastics, taekwondo, table tennis and judo were sports found to exhibit the most ethnic and wealth diversity. The prevalence of white Canadian athletes was significantly higher on the winter team, but not for the summer team. They foundВ 94.9 per cent of winter, and 81.7 per cent of summer athletes were white.ДЇrom a Canadian perspective, the prevalence of privately educated Canadian athletes wasВ significantly higher than in the general population for both the Canadian Winter and Summer Olympic teams.

Privately educated athletes constituted 30.3 per cent, and 32.7 per cent of winter and summer athletes, respectively.

They found that the percentage of the elite athlete population that is white was much larger than that of the general population.

Researchers subjectively classified each athlete as white or non-white based on their photo, determined their secondary schoolВ (private, public, or home schooled), and compared the prevalence of white, privately educated athletes with the prevalence in the general population. The research team studied information onВ 568 winter and 1,643 summer athletes, using the Olympic committee database, sport organizationsвЂ™ database, school-specific (University, College, or secondary school) databases, personal biographies, media reports and social media profiles. In the study, 'Sociodemographic Profile of an Olympic Team,' published this weekВ in Public Health, Lawrence and his team collected sociodemographic data from publicly available resources for all athletes representing Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and Australia at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games. вЂњNot only is the evidence linking elite sports and population health weak, our study found significant access and equity issues that restrict individuals from a lower socioeconomic status, creating a participation parity barrier,вЂќ said Lawrence, who received his medical degree from U of T Medicine in 2013 and trained in sports medicine at St. The Canadian federal government provides approximately $197 million annually to Sport Canada, most of which is directed towards elite and Olympic athletes.ДЄ former university rugby player and member of the Canadian Health Services Team last summer in the Rio de JaneiroВ Olympic Games, Lawrence decided to pursue a public health degree after practicing for two years as a sports medicine physician so he could critically evaluate this so-called вЂњtrickle-down effectвЂќ of elite sport to increase physical activity at a population level. Olympic sports and athletes receive significant financial support from the publicly funded federal budget, an investment that is intended to promote health and physical activity, Lawrence said. The studyвЂ™s lead author,В Lawrence, is a masterвЂ™s student in epidemiology at U of T's Dalla Lana School of Public HealthВ and a staff physician at the David L. вЂњPublic funds are heavily subsidizing Olympic teams that are composed primarily of white and privately educated elite athletesВ in Canada and in high income countries globally,вЂќ said Dr. It's the first international study to examine sociodemographic profiles of individual athletes. White and privately educated Olympic athletesВ вЂ“В particularly Winter Olympic Games athletesВ вЂ“В are over-represented on Olympic teams from Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Australia, a University of Toronto researcher has found.

Olympic participants by country