As of the writing of this article, Team China’s total medal count is at 70 with 26 golds, tailing the United States which has 46 gold medals out of 121 and Great Britain with 27 out of 67.
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“I think it is the best sporting achievement by any team in British sporting history”, said British chef de mission Mark England, flanked by team members, at a press conference at London’s Heathrow Airport.
It is also worth mentioning that Cameroon won its first Olympic medal in 1968 at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, its second in 1984 in Los Angeles, a third in 2000 in Sydney, then 2004 in Athens and finally in 2008 in Beijing.
Double gold-medallist Max Whitlock tried out some of his gymnastics routine on the first-class seats and he and champion boxer Nicola Adams were the first two stars to emerge from the plane, standing at the top of the stairs as the rest of the athletes filed out to cheers and applause.
State media labelled the Games as China’s “worst Olympic flop” and cited Britain’s spending as the reason Team GB toppled them on the medal tally.
She said:”I think the lovely thing is that the London Games were undoubtedly embraced by the nation”.
Some 320 athletes and support staff travelled back from Brazil in the British Airways Boeing 747 with “victoRIOus” emblazoned on the side, and the airline ordered an extra 77 bottles of champagne for the 11-hour flight.
Silver medal-winning rower Katherine Grainger said she felt the timing had been right, especially given recent political turmoil. “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”.
Peaty, who broke the 100m breaststroke world-record twice on his way to securing Team GB’s first medal in Rio as he sealed the gold, is hoping for a chance to replicate the achievements of a host of medal winners who became instant household names following 2012. The US went on to win gold.
“Topping the Americans may be a long shot, it’s just been an incredible moment”, Sweeney said.
The breadth of the team’s medal winning was surprising to many.
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According to the Global Times, this was all because of the success of the Chinese women’s volleyball team who reached for a much-needed victory before the Games ended.
