Team GB boss Andy Anson has hit back at critics slating the British team for their gold medal haul at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Action at the Paris Games came to a close on Sunday afternoon, with Emma Finucane and Emily Campbell picking up Team GB’s final two medals.
It took Team GB’s medal haul to a weighty 65 for this summer’s Olympics, eclipsing the number won by British athletes at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
However, it wasn’t the gold-laden Games they’d hoped for, with Team GB recording their lowest gold medal return since the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
But that isn’t of concern to CEO Anson, who maintains it’s been a positive Olympics from a Team GB point of view.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Anson said: “Every day of the Games we’ve won a medal, that’s never happened before.”
It started on the opening morning when Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper took bronze in the women’s 3m springboard synchronised diving event – Team GB’s first women’s diving medal in 64 years.
And from that point on, as Anson explains, the medals continued to be won.
“They kept coming,” he added. “Right up until this morning, we’d won two medals with Emma Finucane and Emily Campbell. Both brilliant characters.
“There have been so many moments, the gold medals we can discuss, but the number of medals, the quantity of the medals, the nature of the medals has just been incredible. From 18 different sports, 131 athletes I think have won medals out of our whole team of 327.”
Naturally, there were moments of disappointment for Team GB throughout the Games.
Adam Peaty came within 0.02 seconds of gold in the pool, while Helen Glover and her four crew missed out on gold by a similar margin on the rowing lake.
Fine margins have separated Team GB from a healthier gold medal haul, but it isn’t something Anson believes is a problem.
Anson continued: “Every member of our track cycling team who were selected won a medal and there’s just been incredible moments across the whole Games.
“I just want to celebrate that first and foremost. I know from back home, I’ve had more messages of congratulations than I’ve ever had in my life, because everyone is embracing the Olympics and has loved what’s happened.”