The big Team GB wrap of 2023

Monthly review and preview 27 Dec 23

As 2023 draws to a close, a new Olympic year dawns.

British athletes have ridden the highs and lows of Olympic sport over the past 12 months, with new stars emerging and familiar faces showcasing their talent.

For the final time, we look back at the best sporting success of an incredible lead-up year to Paris 2024.

January

The year started with a bang on the ice as Matt Weston stormed to World Championship fame in the men's skeleton.

With winter sport in full flow, the sliding team grabbed the headlines as Weston became Britain's first skeleton world champion in eight years with a track record of 1:06.88 on his second run.

Weston's sliding success rubbed off on bobsleigh extraordinaires Team Hall who grabbed Britain's first-ever four-man European Championship gold.

Brad Hall, Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett etched their names in the history books with a time of time of 1:49.32.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson grabbed ice dance European silver in style whilst speed skater Ellia Smeding made history with 1000m European Sprint bronze.

February

February was undoubtedly the month of Mia Brookes as the 16-year-old became the youngest-ever snowboarding world champion after clinching slopestyle gold.

Brookes was the first woman to land a 1440 and cab 12 in competition on her way to history.

Team Hall continued their incredible exploits in the four-man, clinching Britain's first bobsleigh World Championship medal in 84 years with silver in Latvia.

In the world of summer sport, Keely Hodgkinson and Dina Asher-Smith both lowered their indoor national records in the 800m and 100m respectively on the final leg of the World Athletics Indoor Tour. 

March

Tokyo Olympian Seonaid McIntosh clinched the first Paris 2024 quota spot in shooting for Team GB with European silver in the 10m rifle.

On the indoor circuit, Jazmin Sawyers soared to an incredible maiden senior international title on her 14th attempt with long jump gold at the European Indoor Championships.

Sawyers jumped an incredible seven metres to clinch the title in style and set a new personal best.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Bankes scooped the women's snowboard cross World Cup overall title as speed skater Cornelius Kersten clinched a historic World Championships bronze medal in the men's 1000m.

April

Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan claimed a fairytale World Curling Championship gold in Canada, cruising to a 9-3 victory over the hosts in the final.

Jessica Gadirova led the way with three golds at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, the best-ever performance from a British gymnast at the event.

She became the first gymnast ever to win three consecutive European titles in the floor exercise, whilst Luke Whitehouse was crowned men's floor champion on his major championship debut having helped the men to team bronze earlier in the competition.

Elsewhere, weightlifter Emily Campbell made a roaring comeback from knee surgery and an ongoing back injury to clinch her third European title in Yerevan, Armenia, whilst recurve archer Penny Healey struck World Cup gold in Antalya to rise to the top of the world rankings.

May

Great Britain's men's eight successfully defended their title at the European Rowing Championships in May after a heart-stopping finale.

The team earned victory by a margin of just 0.05 seconds over Romania, as Britain dominated the medal table in Lake Bled.

They were joined on the top of the podium Imogen Grant and Emily Craig, who are unbeaten since their fourth place finish at Tokyo 2020 in the lightweight women’s double sculls, as Helen Glover returned to international competition.

Equestrian legend Charlotte Dujardin also returned to the podium just two months after giving birth to her daughter Isabella, with dressage gold at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

June

A month filled with Team GB action, the 2023 European Games were at the forefront of June.

Diver Eden Cheng got the party started with a gold medal in the women’s 10m platform, securing a quota spot for Paris 2024 in the process.

Britain's women's rugby sevens team sealed Paris qualification after beating hosts Poland 33-0 in their own back yard in the final, the men clinching silver.

Boxers dominated the ring with Delicious Orie punching his way to gold, and he was joined by Rosie Eccles and Charley Davison who also secured a seat on the train to Paris next summer.

Other shining moments of the Games included Kieran Reilly's BMX freestyle gold and Jade Jones's victory in the taekwondo -57kg category.

Read more: The European Games in numbers

July

Matt Richards was crowned king of the 200m freestyle with a thrilling victory in Fukuoka, with teammate Tom Dean touching the wall in second.

A second gold for Richards in the men's 4x200m freestyle added to Britain's eight-medal haul, as Lauren Cox became the first British female to win an individual world medal since 2015 with 50m backstroke bronze.

But Cox was not the only one making history in the pool as Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson became the first British divers to reach the World Championship podium in a women's event with 10m synchro silver, whilst Kate Shortman became the first-ever Brit to win a global artistic swimming medal with solo free bronze and the inspirational Ranjuo Tomblin made his historic debut on the world scene.

Out of the water at the London Diamond League, Zharnel Hughes blasted to a new 200m British record of 19.73, breaking John Regis' 30-year-old record just one month after breaking Linford Christie's 100m British record.

August

Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Josh Kerr led Great Britain to a glorious ten-medal haul at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, as British Athletics equalled their best-ever outing at the event.

Johnson-Thompson took glorious gold in the heptathlon, following in the footsteps of Jessica Ennis-Hill, while Josh Kerr stunned the world with 1500m gold to make it back-to-back British champions in the event after Jake Wightman's 2022 triumph.

Individual medals also came for Keely Hodgkinson and Ben Pattison who earned silver and bronze in the 800m respectively as well as Matthew Hudson-Smith's 400m silver, whilst sprint star Hughes dashed to bronze in the men's 100m.

At the UCI World Cycling Championships, Britain came away with six medals on the track and one in the park.

Rainbow jerseys came for Kieran Reilly, Tom Pidcock, Emma Finucane, the women's team pursuit and the women's Madison in Glasgow.

Alex Yee and Beth Potter stormed to gold at the Triathlon Olympic Test Event in Paris whilst a staggering total of eight Olympic quota places were secured on the water at the Allianz World Sailing Championships.

September

Beth Potter was back at it again as she triumphed in Pontevedra to become a world triathlon champion while Kate Waugh claimed silver in an incredible finale to the 2023 season.

Fresh from her world silver, Keely Hodgkinson smashed her own British record with another epic run in the Diamond League final, clocking 1:55:19 – the tenth fastest time ever in the women’s 800m. 

Lee Valley White Water Centre played host to a conquering Canoe Slalom World Championships for Great Britain, who managed a best-ever performance with five golds, two silvers and a bronze.

British Rowing enjoyed a stellar campaign at the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, picking up four world titles and six medals in Olympic classes as lightweight double scullers Emily Craig and Imogen Grant extended their unbeaten run.

A busy month of action concluded at the Dressage European Championships, as Lottie Fry, Carl Hester, Gareth Hughes and Charlotte Dujardin won Great Britain’s first team dressage gold since London 2012. 

October

Jake Jarman became the first-ever Brit to win a vault world title at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in October.

And he did it in three and a half twists.

The 21-year-old from Peterborough clinched gold with the hardest vault in history, the Yonekura - a staggering 6.000 difficulty skill of 3.5 twists that most wouldn't dream of attempting.

Sport climbing's Toby Roberts also hit the golden jackpot as he became the first British male climber to book Team GB a spot at an Olympic Games.

The 18-year-old won the European Olympic Qualifiers in Laval, France to seal his spot in the combined event.

November

Two-time Olympic medallist Bryony Page catapulted herself to a second individual world title at the 2023 World Trampolining Championships in November.

On home soil in Birmingham, she reclaimed her 2021 world individual crown in style with a score of 56.680, that included a high difficulty of 15.8.

Page was joined by teammate Isabelle Songhurst in the synchronised event, clinching bronze as a duo.

Later in the month, Team Mouat served up a third successive European curling title in Aberdeen.

The Beijing 2022 Olympic silver medallists defeated Niklas Edin's Sweden 6-5 in a dramatic extra-end final that came down to the final stone.

Elsewhere, Paris-bound sailors Anna Burnet and John Gimson closed their season with gold at the Nacra 17 European Championships in Vilamoura as Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson skated to their first-ever Figure Skating Grand Prix victory with the NKH Trophy in Japan.

December

The year came to a close as British swimming delivered their best-ever European short course championship result with a staggering total of 23 medals.

Richards once again topped the podium with 200m freestyle victory as Freya Anderson, Duncan Scott and Medi Harris all added golds to their name.

Tom Daley made his return to competitive diving for the first time since Tokyo 2020 and sealed 10m synchro gold alongside Noah Williams at the British National Diving Cup.

And to cap off an incredible year, Katarina Johnson-Thompson secured a third-place finish at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards whilst Mia Brookes was named BBC Young Sports Personality.

Sportsbeat 2023