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isn’t ridiculous
It absolutely is ridiculous tbh. We're not talking just good, we're talking the sharpest tip of the spear.
It's not just about training, you need the natural physicals and the mentals for it. (E.g fast/slow twitch etc).
E.g Rowing, which was 7% of people I think on that list. Anyone under 6' or so is almost certainly out immediately, then you need people who have natural timing, you can't really teach that, you have it or you don't. (In my years coaching new rowers, it's amazingly rare to find someone who can actually keep decent time through the stroke, maybe one in every 500 people was a natural, if not less).
I guess you also have to factor in all the people who've already got a massive head start who you need to overtake, who've already been doing it for years and years and won't be answering yougov polls.
They are out there though, look at Helen Glover.
There are 7 million people aged 15 to 24 in the UK, around 10% of the population. In 4 years’ time that cohort will be the right age for most Olympic sports. So 6% of the population thinking that with training they could compete in 4 years’ time isn’t ridiculous.