(10) Sunday, August 8 (final day) –

Final Medal Table Standings

General Overview of Team GB

Considering that for much of the last 18 months, the country has been locked down and many of our athletes have been without competition, the results in Tokyo have been an incredible succession of firsts and new records having been set. Jason Kenny has become the most decorated British Olympian ever. Laura Kenny became the most successful female track cyclist in Olympic history. The Boxing team winning the most medals since Antwerp 1920. Adam Peaty becoming the first British swimmer to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal. Duncan Scott becoming the first Briton to win four medals at a single Games. Katie French and Joe Choong winning Golds in the women and men’s modern pentathlon – the first time both titles have been won by the same country. Sky Brown becoming the youngest Team GB medallist ever. The men’s and women’s 1500m – both incredibly difficult races on the international stage – claiming bronze for Scots Josh Kerr and silver for Laura Muir.

And the unforgettable images. The sheer joy and exuberance of Sky Brown on a skateboard. Charlotte Worthington’s 360 degree jump on a BMX. In the men’s keirin Jason Kenny shooting out on front at the start and staying there. The look of delight on Keely Hodgkinson’s face when she realises she has won silver in the Women’s 800 metres. And Tom Daley knitting.

When Daley Thompson won his second decathlon gold at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, Time magazine ran a feature about him titled ‘Call this Briton Great’. In 2021, of the 65 medal winners, Call these Britons Great. Truly inspiring.

. Chris Spice, the performance director of British swimming, gives an overview of British swimming

Great Britain’s national performance director Chris Spice has been basking in the glow of a job well done and is looking forward to the prospect of even more glory at the Paris Olympics.

Team GB collected a record eight swimming medals with four golds, three silvers and a bronze, representing their best ever haul at a single Games, achieved by those who will have high hopes of going to France in three years.

“One of the great things is that 75 per cent [of the swimmers were] in their first Olympics. The extra year has helped us. No doubt about it. Our team looks totally different than it would have looked last year.

“The experience now that the group have got from coming here, the experience those youngsters have got, we want to get better each Olympics. Our plan is not to stand still. The minute you stand still you get overtaken.

“Our plan is to keep pushing in every single aspect of performance, science and medicine and the innovation projects that we have got going. We are still going to push. Our goal will be to be better in Paris. That doesn’t mean it is going to happen because we’ve got to work hard to make it happen.”

Only the United States and Australia finished ahead of Britain in the swimming medals table, but Spice acknowledged those countries, along with one or two others, have greater funding in locating and nurturing fresh talent. Spice, though, estimates they can go up another gear or two by directing the resources they do get into different channels to discover untapped potential within Britain.
When asked how much better, in percentage terms they can be, the British Swimming chief replied: “I think there is another 10 to 15 in the short-term, but probably in the long term another 25.

“There is still investment going in to different areas that we haven’t got outputs yet. That coupled with the talent we have in this group and the fact that they are young and moving forward is significant.

“There is a whole range of stuff we haven’t hit yet. We have got a bit up our sleeve. Equally we are never going to be as deep as China, Russia and America, we have to maximise our potential, Australia too of course.

“They have got a lot more numbers than us. We have to maximise the talent we have got – we have to get a gem early.”