Posts on social media by team members revealed athletes’ fun on the flight from Rio to London, which had 77 bottles of champagne on board.
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Double gold medal-winning gymnast Max Whitlock and Adams were first off the plane, posing and waving for photographers, before the rest of the team followed to further cheers and applause from airport staff.
Team GB won 67 medals – 27 golds – and finished second in the table behind the USA.
‘Andy was flag bearer and he spoke to all of the team before the opening ceremony, he spoke really eloquently about being part of Team GB, the importance of being one Team GB and the importance of everybody doing what they could to replicate London.
“Adam gave the team the start it required”, England added.
World record-breaking swimmer Adam Peaty said not being intimidated by “big names” such as Michael Phelps was key to winning Britain’s first male swimming gold in 28 years. I think the nice thing about sport is it does unite people and it lifts people.
“There is no language barrier and I can shake the hand with China and Russian Federation, athletes that don’t speak any English, but it doesn’t matter”.
London’s depth and variety of talent was reflected in three golds, two silvers and six bronze medals across 12 different sports including athletics, cycling, equestrian, boxing, rowing and taekwondo. “I hope people look at how I’ve got into the Games and want to get involved”.
He said: “It’s great to be back on British soil again and I can’t wait to inspire the next generation of British athletes”.
“I think it is the best sporting achievement by any team in British sporting history”, he said at a press conference at Heathrow.
Someone who did not need to be inspired by the achievements of 2012 was rower Katherine Grainger, who took her first Olympic gold four years ago. It’s been a tough year for the country.
“How do you compare events?” How do you compare success?
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He said: “This is a very competitive business – the time margins that separate success and failure at Olympic sport are tiny – but set against this, 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”.
