It takes a village to raise an Olympian and the influence of fathers and fatherhood has been felt by many of Team GB’s finest.
Famously only once have a father and son combined on the field of play, when a stricken Derek Redmond was carried to the finish line of the 400m final at Barcelona 1992.
But it does the job as a visual metaphor, mimetic of the impact that parenting has on those who dedicate their lives to pushing body and mind to their limits.
Tokyo 2020 was a cauldron of emotion to rival any Games, where Dads were denied the chance to watch their Olympic offspring compete by Covid-19.
Max Whitlock and his wife Leah welcomed daughter Willow into the world in February 2019.
Whitlock calls becoming a father his ‘greatest achievement’, no mean feat when you’re a three-time Olympic champion and six-time medallist.
His reflections on Willow’s early years could have come from the mouths of any new parents.
"Parenthood is pretty mad and full-on,” he says. “As first-timers, we've had to work it all out as we've gone along.
“Every small thing in Willow's development seems like the biggest thing in the world to us.
"We're so lucky Willow's a super-happy, easy-going little girl and she's inherited my love of sleep!”
Elite sport is a selfish experience and it has to be, particularly in a fiercely individual discipline like Whitlock’s pommel horse, on which he won his second Olympic gold in Tokyo.
Greater ‘perspective’ is a familiar refrain among Team GB’s parents and Whitlock puts it better than most.
"Having Willow has given Leah and I perspective about what's really important, and that's actually had a hugely beneficial effect on my gymnastics,” he says.
“It's taken the pressure off because even if a session in the gym doesn't go quite go right, I know Leah and Willow are at home to make it all better.
“A big smile from my daughter when I walk in the door is guaranteed to stop me overthinking and dwelling on things."
Tom Daley and father Rob shared a dream of him competing at London 2012, but only one of them got to live it.
Rob died of a brain tumour in 2011, with some of his ashes buried under a tile at the London Aquatics Centre, which Daley touched after each dive at the Games.
“I found it really difficult to process that I was never going to see him again,” said the Olympic champion. “When it actually happened it was so horrible, I couldn’t let it sink in.
“It was a very challenging thing to try and overcome."
Daley, who won Olympic gold at the fourth attempt in Tokyo, is now a father to Robbie, four, with husband Dustin, describing himself as the stricter parent.
“For as long as I could remember, I have wanted to be a parent," he said:
"I think because of the relationship with my mum and dad, we were so close and then, when I lost my dad, it was like, I want to be everything that he was to me to someone else because every child deserves to have what I had with my dad because it was such a special relationship, we were so close.
“I honestly just want him to feel happy and loved. For him to grow up in an environment of diversity, inclusivity and acceptance. He’s my number one.”
Father Nigel was everything to Kye Whyte - his coach in his early years on a BMX, and a tough taskmaster to boot.
Nigel founded the Peckham BMX Club where the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist learned his trade, an organisation widely respected in the local community for helping steer youth away from crime.
Kye, who was on two wheels from the age of three, said: “I had mates who were sucked into gang life, 100%, and I still have mates that are in that life now.
“I have mates that have gone down that road and are either not here with us now or are in jail. I just knew it was a route I was not going to take. When I was younger, Dad was super-strict.”
From South London to the south coast, Eilidh McIntyre grew up watching videos of father Mike winning sailing gold at the Olympics.
Mike McIntyre won gold in the Star at Seoul 1988 with Bryn Vaile, a feat that his daughter emulated 14 years later with 470 gold alongside Hannah Mills in Tokyo.
“One of the really beautiful things about having an Olympic gold medal hanging in the house is that anything seems possible,” she said.
“Why not? My dad did it, so why couldn’t I? That’s been a big aspect of who I am.”
Sportsbeat 2022