cancel2 2022
Canceled
We have less than a fifth of the population of the USA yet we came second in the medal table beating China. First Brexit and now the Olympics!!
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2016/08/23/team-gb-aim-to-top-medal-table-at-tokyo-games-following-record-b/
Great Britain’s triumphant Olym*pians were hailed on Tuesday as the best team in the history of British sport amid a promise that their unprecedented success can be repeated at Tokyo in 2020. Arriving home on a chartered British Airways flight – BA2016 – on Tuesday morning, Team GB received a rapturous welcome at Heathrow Airport, where the first plans for building on Britain’s greatest ever overseas medal haul were outlined. Crucially, it was stressed that an increase in funding for Team GB was secure for this next Olympic cycle, while tentative plans are being made for a Ryder Cup-style competition with the United States that would further raise the profile and sponsorship potential of Olympic sports.
Hugh Robertson, the vice-chairman of the British Olympic Association, said: “Nobody ever thought that we would do better in Rio than we did in London and by the same token there is no reason, given the fundamental structure of British Olympic sport and the way it is geared to deliver medal success, that we shouldn’t have a very, very good games indeed in Tokyo. “Funding is vital. The crucial thing is that it is guaranteed for a number of cycles. It is one of the things that gives us a key competitive advantage. “If you asked after London 2012 if we could get 67 medals, I would have thought that was stretching it. It’s a product of long-term planning. The lesson from Rio is you should have confidence in the British structure and an incredibly talented group of athletes."
The team all sang God Save the Queen ahead of take-off from Rio on Monday night, with BA providing 77 extra bottles of champagne and a three-course menu on a special plane that was emblazoned with a golden nose and the words “victoRIOus” and “GreattobeBAck” on the sides. The 12-hour flight was, by all accounts, a big party, with gold medal-winning gymnast Max Whitlock performing some of his moves on the seats of the plane. Others, including swimming gold medallist Adam Peaty, were photographed in the cockpit with the pilot while some of the women’s hockey gold medallists dressed up as cabin crew. Helen Glover, the gold medal-winning rower, described it as “the flight of a lifetime”.
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Max Whitlock shows off his skills
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2016/08/23/team-gb-aim-to-top-medal-table-at-tokyo-games-following-record-b/