A new survey has revealed that a quarter of Brits reckon they could qualify for the 2028 Olympics if they start training from now.
The flame may have now gone out on the 2024 Olympics over in Paris, but all eyes are now looking ahead to 2028 when the world’s biggest sporting competition descends on the US city of Los Angeles once again.
And apparently, more than one in four Brits (27%) believe they could be a part of it.
Perhaps the most memorable image to come out of the 2024 Olympics is Turkish shooter, Yusuf Dikeç, who, in contrast to other athletes at the 10m air pistol mixed team event competing in specialised gear, became a viral meme for shooting casually with one hand in his pocket, looking like he’d just wandered in off the street.
Despite him having been competing since 2001, Mr Dikec’s somewhat surprising Olympic silver medal win is likely to answer for the results in this latest YouGov poll , as the 51-year-old appears to be serving as inspiration for a quarter of Brits.
In a bid to find out how many people reckon they could become an ‘everyman Olympian’, YouGov asked the British public whether they thought they could qualify for the 2028 Olympics, in one of 25 listed sports , if they started training from today and committed to giving it all they’ve got.
A new character in Olympics shooting has been unlocked…
First we had South Korea's Kim Yeji, now meet Turkish Olympic shooter Yusuf Dikec.
No special lenses, no ear defenders, just a hand in the pocket.#BBCOlympics #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/d8J90nOlIK
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 1, 2024
The results show that more than one in four (27%) think they’re up to the task.
When it comes to the ages of respondents, the results showed that the youngest Brits are by far the most likely to think they’ve got what it takes to compete on the world stage, with 39% of 18-24 year olds saying so, alongside 34% of 25-49 year olds, while understandably, the oldest Brits are far less certain.
Although saying that, even still, 15% of the over-65s think they could compete in the games if they put their mind to it.
The results also show that men are slightly more likely than women (30% vs 25%) to think they could make the Olympic team in 2028.
YouGov says that, while the public may appear overconfident in the survey , this is perhaps more understandable when you realise the two sports they think they could compete in require the least physical activity, as 15% of Brits say they could qualify for the 10m Air Rifle team if they started training today, and a similar 13% believe they could earn a spot on the Team GB Archery team.
So, what’s your thoughts on this then? Which sport do you think you could put four years of hard work in to before the next games?
Check out the results in full here.
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Featured Image – Alexandre Aymard (via Unsplash)
