It was identified that in the 2008 Beijing Olympics over 50% of gold medallists from the UK were educated at private schools. Considering that only 7% of the UK population is educated at private schools, this means a disproportionate number of privately educated students are representing the UK in the Olympics. Over 30% of UK Olympians were educated privately, as was 40% of all UK medallists. This trend is particularly marked in sports such as equestrian in which every medallist was privately educated. The reason for this difference is the emphasis in which private school place on sport by devoting more time to sporting activities and often hiring top class coaches. To address this imbalance steps are being taken to encourage students from state education to engage in sport. A program was launched to identify and develop teenagers from comprehensive schools in the sport of rowing.