“The Japanese home team challenge will be very strong, the Russians are going to be back probably as a greater presence than they were in Rio and of course other countries are going spend a couple of years up to Tokyo looking very hard at what we’ve been doing and trying to work out the secrets of our success in London and Rio”.
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Several New York Athletic Club athletes helped the USA earn gold in women’s water polo: KK Clark, Kami Craig, Kaleigh Gilchrist, Ashleigh Johnson, Courtney Mathewson, Melissa Seidemann and Maggie Steffens.
Team GB secured a total of 67 medals, with 27 golds, placing them in second place after the U.S. and above China in third place.
“I think it is the best sporting achievement by any team in British sporting history”, he said at a press conference at Heathrow.
Many stars of London 2012 successfully defended their crowns four years on, including Mo Farah on the track, Nicola Adams in the boxing ring and Jade Jones on the taekwondo mats.
British athletes returned home to London Heathrow shortly before 10:00 on Tuesday aboard the newly-renamed “victoRIOus” British Airways flight, complete with 320 athletes and support staff and 77 additional bottles of champagne, while everyone on board the flight will be offered a three-course meal.
Kayak gold medal victor Joe Clarke tweeted a selfie from the top of the plane stairs with the caption: “What a reception!”
Research by the Sutton Trust foundation shows 60 per cent of athletes who won medals for Britain went to comprehensive schools, up four points from 56 per cent in 2012.
There were cheers and applause airside as the athletes filed off the plane, proudly wearing their medals.
Adam Peaty, who started the British gold rush by smashing his own world record to win the 100 metres breaststroke swimming title added: “It’s great to be back on British soil again and I can’t wait to inspire the next generation of British athletes”.
Hosts Brazil’s Olympics took off when Rio native Rafaela Silva, 24, won judo gold on day three.
A 29 per cent increase in elite athlete spending for Team GB will be honoured by HM Treasury after the success of the Rio Olympics, according to reports.
The aircraft was emblazoned with the hashtag #GreattobeBack which medal winners were encouraged to tweet with.
Swimmer Fu Yuanhui shone through with her warm personality and honesty, even to the extent of talking about her periods, while Qin Kai proposed to fellow diver He Zi as she stepped off the Olympic podium. As we go out for dinner, people are coming up and saying “Well done” and buying us drinks.
Great Britain’s most successful Olympic Games in more than a century saw it finish with 67 medals, 27 of them gold, with only the United States ahead in the overall standings in Rio.
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London gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill may be bowing out after claiming silver in these Games, but there is another Brit ready to pick up the baton in 23-year-old Johnson-Thompson. You’ll also be exposed to the athletes, the sporting prowess of the country, the history and famous landmarks. How do you compare success? “It’s so tricky”, she said. The lovely thing is London was a hugely inspirational experience and we felt we couldn’t replicate that so to be the only nation to better themselves after a home games is incredible.
