By JAKE EISENBERG, CAMILLE CHRYSOSTOM and JULZ HARVEY

COLLEGE PARK – Athletes from Maryland – including Michael Phelps (Towson) and Katie Ledecky (Bethesda) – dominated at the 2016 Rio Olympics, bringing home 16 gold medals.

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Why did so many Olympic stars hail from Maryland? It might be because Maryland is one of the nation’s wealthiest states. And training for the Olympics is not cheap.

“We do indeed need to question whether we are sending our best – or merely the best individuals with access to key resources,” said Adam Beissel, a lecturer in the University of Maryland’s kinesiology department, who focuses on the sociological, economic and cultural relationships within sports.

A Capital News Service analysis of Olympic and income data found a correlation between the number of Olympic athletes from a given state and the state’s median income, as the chart below shows.