Britain won 67 medals to finish second in the gold medal table, behind the United States, and became the first country to improve on a home medal haul at the next games, having collected 65 at the 2012 Olympics in London.
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“He spoke really eloquently about the importance of being part of Team GB, the importance of one Team GB and the importance of everybody doing what they could to replicate London”.
The gold-nosed British Airways aircraft carrying the Olympic athletes home is named “victoRIOus” following a public vote.
Among the British gold medal winners were Justin Rose – who beat Henrik Stenson to first place on golf’s return to the Olympics – and Andy Murray, who retained his men’s singles tennis title.
Highlights from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games were shown on board, alongside sporting documentaries “Sporting Greats; Sir Steve Redgrave” and “Back on Board: Greg Louganis”, as well as classic sports film “Chariots of Fire”.
A press conference is expected at around midday, where we will hear from key figures in the Team GB Olympics team on their incredible success.
The athletes of Great Britain and Northern Ireland performed in what has been dubbed their most successful away Games for more than 100 years.
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.
Team GB departed on flight BA2016 from Rio de Janeiro on Monday August 22nd and land into Heathrow Terminal 5 on Tuesday morning to an invite-only media reception.
“It was weird landing, you are in a bubble and everyone is looking in but you are not looking out”.
Not to be outdone, his fiancee Laura Trott secured two gold medals of her own in the team pursuit and omnium.
“I can’t wait to get back home”.
“It’s premature to be talking about targets and we need to deal with reality. There is an wonderful amount of medallists there”. The Olympians tacked on 37 silver medals as well, along with 38 bronze medals.
His father said: “This time we stayed at home and watched the race on television with friends family and neighbours”.
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“It has been unusual and taken a bit of adjusting, you are in a bubble when you are out there and have no idea what is going on at home”, Kenny said. I think we all felt that nearly couldn’t be replicated, it couldn’t happen again, it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
