They topped the medal table with a total of 12, twice as many as the nearest rival.
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The Welsh swimmer missed out on a medal in Rio by just six hundredths of a second in her first ever meeting on a global scale and would have sealed a top-three finish regardless had convicted doping cheat Yulia Efimova, who finished second, not won her appeal against a ban.
Enter the record-breaker Chris Froome.
“We also had athletes in Rio who we expect not necessarily to win a medal in Tokyo but possibly to win one in wherever the 2024 Olympics are held so we invest over this long time period”.
There wasn’t long to wait for the second.
But Team GB’s stunning performance has been met with sneers on the continent.
“I remember Sir Alex Ferguson got it because he was at Manchester United, and Sir Steve Redgrave for what he did, and to be able to be in the same category as them would be pretty awesome”. The teams both went 8-0 in the Olympic tournament and won gold medals.
Thirty-nine different disciplines are listed as Olympic sports, including four cycling events, three types of swimming contests and three formats of gymnastics, and Great Britain accrued medals in 22 of the sports.
The team pursuit gauntlet was laid down by the men on Friday – and the women showed their world class pursuiting ability the following evening with a sensational gold. Laura Trott’s double in Rio made her the all-time leading woman with four.
It produced a classic showdown in the final and the fastest team pursuit race for women of all time.
After a few years dominated by illness and injury, James feared she would never get on a bike again, let alone make it to an Olympics.
“We’ve had an wonderful fortnight at the Rio Olympics and we should be looking at the different ways we can recognise and reward the athletes for what they’ve achieved and honours are there to recognise people”, she added, hinting that the prizes would be announced in a New Year honours list.
But despite the criticism, some European Union countries congratulated the Brits for the incredible turnaround, just 20 years after Team GB came home from the Atlanta games with just one gold. I just noticed earlier today that it was still less than a week ago that we were racing in Rio, which is freakish.
Britain’s quadruple gold medal runner Mo Farah has helped contribute to Greta Britain’s status as a “sporting superpower”. In Brazil, he added that honour to his achievements.
Many will feel their lives will now be somewhat empty without mammoth sporting performances from homegrown heroes to watch on TV, bit there is of course the Paralympic Games to look forward to.
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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.
