Since the birth of the Olympic movement in 1896, only three countries have sent athletes to every Summer and Winter Games - and Great Britain is proudly among them.
The proceeding 125 years have brought an incredible array of moments which have become etched in British sporting folklore and those heading to Tokyo this summer are the latest to carry the baton in search of similar feats.
In this series of features, we will be shining a light on the stories behind some of Britain’s most remarkable Olympians, the obstacles they have overcome and the legacy they have helped create.
In the final article of our three-part series, we turn our attention to the new millennium and perhaps Team GB’s greatest ever era – including an explosion of medals, the unforgettable summer of 2012 and a growing force in the world of winter sports. This is the story of 1998-present.
Read the first in our series, looking at 1896-1936, by clicking here.
Read the second in our series, looking at 1948-1996, by clicking here.
THE BIRTH OF ‘TEAM GB’
Atlanta 1996 had proved to be a disappointment for Great Britain with just one gold – courtesy of Messrs Redgrave and Pinsent – and only 15 medals in total, marking the worst return since Helsinki 1952.
But out of the ashes came a phoenix, as the concept of ‘Team GB’ was formed in the aftermath of those Games with the aim of unifying the team as one body, regardless of each athlete’s particular sport.
The National Lottery also began funding elite sport in 1996 and over £2.8 billion has been invested in supporting British Olympic and Paralympic sport ever since.
With an additional £2.2 billion contributed by The National Lottery towards the London 2012 Games, the investment has been substantial but so have the results, with this funding helping Team GB’s athletes consistently find success come Games time.
Sydney 2000 marked the first Summer Games both under the Team GB moniker and with National Lottery funding, and the improvements from four years earlier were immediate, as one gold became 11 and 15 medals became 28.
QUEALLY THE CATALYST
When Jason Queally brilliantly won the men’s track cycling 1km time trial on September 16, 2000 – securing Team GB’s first Olympic medal in the event since 1948 – he probably didn’t realise he would spark a 21st-century goldrush that shows no signs of slowing down two decades later, both in the velodrome and at the Games as a whole.
In the fortnight following Queally’s success, ten more Sydney golds were sealed by British athletes, including from two of the country’s greatest-ever Olympians, and future knights of the realm, at opposite ends of their careers.
Sir Steve Redgrave had famously declared “if anyone sees me go near a boat, you’ve got my permission to shoot me” after winning a fourth Olympic title in Atlanta but luckily no-one took him literally, as he returned to claim rowing gold number five, aged 38, as part of the coxless four.
Meanwhile, on slightly choppier waters, Sir Ben Ainslie was sailing his way to glory in the Laser class, before going on to win Finn gold at the subsequent three Games to make him a four-time Olympic champion and the most successful sailor, of any nationality, in Olympic history.
And at the Sydney Olympic Stadium, Jonathan Edwards and Denise Lewis were reaching the pinnacle of their careers by triumphing in the long jump and heptathlon respectively.
CHRIS AND BRAD JUST GETTING STARTED
Redgrave and Ainslie weren’t the only future knights of the realm stepping on the podium in Sydney as back in the velodrome, a 24-year-old Scot and 20-year-old firebrand were getting their first taste of Olympic action.
Sir Chris Hoy was part of the team sprint crew, alongside Queally and Craig MacLean, that narrowly missed out on top spot, but the Edinburgh native quickly decided that silver didn’t really suit him.
Four years later in Athens, Hoy would earn a taste of gold in the 1km time trial before claiming three golds at Beijing 2008 – becoming the first British athlete in 100 years to do so at a single Games – in the individual sprint, team sprint and keirin.
Fast forward to London 2012 and the now-36-year-old would retain his Olympic title in the latter two events on home boards to end a remarkable career with six Olympic gold medals – a total that, as of April 2021, no British athlete in history has exceeded.
Talking of record holders, that 20-year-old firebrand in Sydney was Bradley Wiggins, belying his relative inexperience to help the team pursuit group to bronze.
By the end of his career, he would be the proud owner of eight Olympic medals – a total unsurpassed by any Brit in history – after adding two individual pursuit golds (2004, 2008), two team pursuit golds (2008, 2016), a road time trial gold (2012), as well as team pursuit silver and Madison bronze at Athens 2004.
DAME KELLY AT THE DOUBLE
Speaking of Athens 2004, Team GB’s overall medal count rose by two from Sydney to 30, while nine golds were registered – with more than a fifth won by a certain Dame Kelly Holmes.
No Briton for 84 years had claimed two golds at the same Games and no British woman had ever won two athletics gold. Luckily, records are there to be broken.
Likeable, gutsy and a supremely talented middle-distance runner, Holmes had suffered untimely injuries throughout her career and then fell to bronze-medal position at Sydney 2000 after leading the 800m with 50m to go.
But with her final shot at OIympic glory in Athens, on two glorious evenings less than a week apart, the 34-year-old would etch her name into the history books.
Firstly, in the 800m, she came roaring through the field to outsprint her training partner Maria Mutola, with her disbelieving face and BBC commentator Steve Cram’s excited shouts of “You’ve won it, Kelly, yes, you’ve won it,” providing the Games’ iconic image and audio.
Five nights later, powered by an engine of confidence, she stormed through the pack once more to post a British record en route to 1,500m gold before deservedly being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year later that year and heading off into the sunset.
Athens also saw the ‘three blondes in a boat’ – Sarah Ayton, Shirley Robertson and Sarah Webb – sail to glory in the Yngling class, the men’s 4x100m relay quartet beat the USA to gold by 0.01s and Sir Matthew Pinsent row his way to an incredible fourth Olympic gold – a tally only bettered by four Brits in history, including his great friend Redgrave.
SKELETON IN THE CLOSET
While the medal tallies were rising with each passing Summer Games, Team GB was also making a statement at the Winter Olympics.
Nagano 1998 saw just a sole bronze medal for the four-man bobsleigh team but at Salt Lake City 2002, a nation stayed up past midnight to watch Britain claim a first Winter Olympic gold in 18 years.
Most Brits had likely never even heard of curling prior to the Games but they were enthralled as the women’s competition came down to the final moment of the final end of the final game and Rhona Martin – ably assisted by Debbie Knox, Fiona MacDonald and Janice Rankin – delivered the Stone of Destiny to beat Switzerland 4-3 and spark wild celebrations.
Also in Salt Lake City, women’s skeleton was added to the programme for the first time and Alex Coomber delivered a bronze medal that that would spark Great Britain’s rise to become an unlikely skeleton powerhouse.
Team GB have medalled in women’s skeleton at every Games since as Shelley Rudman upgraded to silver at Turin 2006 before Amy Williams became the first Brit since 1980 to win an individual Winter Olympic event when she sensationally claimed gold at Vancouver 2010.
Rudman and Williams’ efforts were Team GB’s only medal at each of those Games but Sochi 2014 saw the team record the highest medal total (five) of any British outfit in Winter Olympic history.
That total included Jenny Jones flipping her way to snowboard bronze in slopestyle for Britain’s first-ever medal on snow, while Lizzy Yarnold maintained the skeleton dominance with a scintillating gold.
PyeongChang 2018 then saw further history being made as Yarnold became the first British athlete to retain a Winter Olympic title, becoming Team GB’s most successful Winter Olympian in history in the process, while Laura Deas’s bronze ensured two Brits climbed the podium in the same event for the first time.
February 17, 2018 became GB’s most successful day in Winter Olympic history with three medals – Yarnold, Deas and freestyle skier Izzy Atkin’s slopestyle bronze – while Atkin’s effort was also Britain’s first-ever medal on skis.
BRILLIANT BECKYS
There’s nothing quite like a home Olympic Games and London 2012 enraptured a nation but the success of Team GB’s athletes on home soil – the culmination of 16 years of National Lottery funding – was foreshadowed at Beijing 2008.
The overall performance was the best since London 1908 as 51 medals were won with the 19 golds being second on the all-time list only to the home Games a century earlier and a pair of Rebeccas certainly pulled their weight in the final medal haul.
Becky Adlington became Britain’s first swimming champion since 1988 as a world record in the 800m freestyle final added to her 400m freestyle gold and she would go on to claim bronze in both those events four years later.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Romero became a rare two-sport Olympic medallist as she won individual pursuit gold in the velodrome after earning quadruple sculls silver on the rowing lake in Athens.
Elsewhere, Christine Ohuruogu made her trademark late surge to win gold in the women’s 400m.
Four years later Ohuruogu, who grew up within a mile of the Olympic Stadium in London, would claim an emotional silver before literally walking home after the event.
Beijing 2008 was also perhaps the greatest demonstration of Team GB’s cycling dominance as eight gold medals were won, including Victoria Pendleton in the individual sprint and Jason Kenny helping the team sprint crew to glory.
As it happened, Kenny was only just getting started and would soon go on to join Hoy as the most successful British Olympian of all time with six gold medals.
A VELODROME LOVE STORY
The team sprint became his staple, with glory following in the event at London 2012 and Rio 2016, while he also won the individual sprint at both those Games and added keirin gold in Rio for a super six.
With Tokyo 2020 firmly in his sights this summer, he may soon be out on his own as the most decorated British Olympian of all time.
London 2012 was also notable for Kenny as his relationship with fellow cyclist Laura Trott became public and if you want the definition of a power couple, look no further!
Trott brilliantly won the omnium and team pursuit on home boards in London before defending both titles in Rio to become Team GB’s most successful female Olympian in history with four golds.
The Kennys (they got married in 2016) were two stars of London 2012 but the number of Brits who wrote their name in the history books on home soil are almost too numerous to list.
LONDON CALLING
Suffice to say, that summer will be ingrained in the country’s consciousness for decades to come as a nation came together to celebrate the very best of everything British.
London became the first city to host the Summer Olympics on three occasions and the home athletes delivered, as Team GB won medals in 17 sports – 65 in total with a remarkable 29 golds, to finish third in the medal table.
Great Britain had never won a canoe slalom, triathlon or taekwondo gold but Etienne Stott & Tim Baillie, Ali Brownlee and Jade Jones soon changed all that, with Jones and Brownlee going on to retain their titles in Rio four years later and cement their places as all-time Olympic greats.
Germany had won every team dressage event since 1980 until Laura Bechtolsheimer, Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin ensured British glory, with Dujardin also winning individual dressage gold on Valegro and retaining her title in Rio to become just the second British woman, after Kenny, to win three Olympic golds.
History was also made as Nicola Adams became the first female Olympic boxing champion by claiming flyweight glory, something she would repeat in Rio, while perhaps no-one deserved their gold more than Katherine Grainger.
The rower went from being the bridesmaid with three consecutive Olympic silver medals to finally being the bride as a champion in the double sculls alongside Anna Watkins – also becoming the first Team GB female athlete to win medals at four consecutive Games.
SUPER SATURDAY
But perhaps what will be remembered more than anything else from the London Games is Super Saturday – August 4, 2012 – that was described by Lord Coe as the greatest day of sport he had ever witnessed.
It was Team GB’s most successful day at the Olympics since 1908 as six gold medals were won, starting at Eton Dorney where the men’s coxless four (Alex Gregory, Tom James, Pete Reed, Andrew Triggs Hodge) and women’s lightweight double sculls (Kat Copeland and Sophie Hosking) rowed to glory before Trott, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell Shand took team pursuit gold in the velodrome.
Then, the coup de grâce, three athletics golds in 44 minutes as Jess Ennis-Hill won the heptathlon, Greg Rutherford leapt to a surprise long jump win and Mo Farah blitzed the 10,000m. A day that will live on forever.
HISTORY UPON HISTORY
In music, it’s known as ‘the difficult second album’ – how do you follow up an initial masterpiece?
For Team GB, the answer was to simply improve on it, as the medal total of 67 at Rio 2016 incredibly surpassed London by two, although the number of golds fell from 29 to 27.
It was the most successful overseas Olympics for any British team in history and GB became the first nation to surpass its medal total at the Games immediately following one it hosted.
And if the National Lottery funding needed any further proof of its worth, Great Britain became just the second nation (after Azerbaijan) to increase the number of medals won at five consecutive Olympics.
The nadir of 1996 may only have been 20 years earlier but by Rio, it was a distant memory.
In addition to the Kenny household putting themselves atop the British male and female all-time Olympian list, Max Whitlock won Team GB’s first-ever Olympic gymnastics gold as he triumphed on the floor and then followed that up with pommel horse glory for good measure as well as a first-ever men’s all-around medal for a Brit with bronze.
Bryony Page won a maiden trampolining medal for Team GB with silver, while on the track Farah completed an incredible double-double to emerge victorious from the 5,000m and 10,000m and confirm his status as Britain’s most successful Olympic athletics star.
Defending a title was also on the mind of tennis legend Andy Murray, who did exactly that in the men’s singles, and Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, as they were again triumphant in the coxless pairs.
Poster girl of London 2012 Ennis-Hill returned from having a child to brilliantly win silver in the heptathlon and Glover will try to take inspiration from her compatriot as she tries to qualify for Tokyo 2020 this summer having had three children since Rio 2016. She would be the first British female rower to return to an Olympics after giving birth.
Golf returned after a 100-year absence from the Games and Justin Rose – who had spent the first week of the Games as Team GB’s most famous superfan, taking in as many sports as possible and supporting his countrymen before his event got underway – carded a hole-in-one en route to gold.
But perhaps the most memorable victory came on the hockey field as the Kate Richardson-Walsh-led squad went unbeaten across the tournament to win our first Summer Olympic team gold for 28 years.
It certainly wasn’t without drama, as a 3-3 thriller in the final against Netherlands went to penalties, where a string of saves from Maddie Hinch and an emphatic finish from Hollie Pearne-Webb sealed a 2-0 win.
Team GB have crammed a lot of success into the last two decades of Olympic sport and even more into the 125 years since the first modern Games in Athens in 1896.
We’ve provided just a snapshot of some of the heroes who have created these moments and the best news is, there will be more memories created and legacies secured in Tokyo this summer.
Sportsbeat 2021