Brazil Olympics 2016
- Thread starter Walter
- Start date
GOLD - Great Britain
Rowing - Men's eights
From gun to line. An imperious performance.
Britannia rules the Lagoa waves.
Germany hold off the Netherlands to claim silver.
And we're doing it yet again in the Velodrome:
New world record
Women's team pursuit heats
Boom!
Great Britain's team pursuit qualify for the final as they beat Canada, laying down a whopper of a marker as they break the world record with a time of four minutes 12.152 seconds.
Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald are the quarter rewriting history.
Having won gold at London 2012, Team GB are looking to defend their Olympic title against current world champions USA, who previously broke the world record with a time of four minutes 12:282 seconds in their heat.
The final will take place later on Saturday at 20:53 BST.
Rowing - Men's eights
From gun to line. An imperious performance.
Britannia rules the Lagoa waves.
Germany hold off the Netherlands to claim silver.
And we're doing it yet again in the Velodrome:
New world record
Women's team pursuit heats
Boom!
Great Britain's team pursuit qualify for the final as they beat Canada, laying down a whopper of a marker as they break the world record with a time of four minutes 12.152 seconds.
Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald are the quarter rewriting history.
Having won gold at London 2012, Team GB are looking to defend their Olympic title against current world champions USA, who previously broke the world record with a time of four minutes 12:282 seconds in their heat.
The final will take place later on Saturday at 20:53 BST.
Feeling grand! Like I always do when we get another gold.
We should win at least another gold in the cycling tonight - as in London, all the other countries needn't even bother turning up at the Velodrome - and then hopefully Rutherford and Farah will defend their Olympic long jump and 10,000m titles respectively at Botafogo FC's Estádio Olímpico João Havelange tonight. So Great Britain could win another three gold medals at least today.
What is the psychology of people who brag?
Either they're a Type A personality which includes narcissism.
Or they're deeply insecure about themselves, and therefore to avoid or repress the pain or anxiety of being or not being something they don't want or want to be, they exaggerate about themselves. It arises mainly due to a poor self-esteem and in some cases, delusional thoughts. When they brag, they think that others will respect them and give them more attention. It is a type of defense mechanism that helps them cope with anxiety and assures them that they're good enough. However they may not realize what they're doing because their insecurities are repressed somewhere in the unconscious part of their mind which is not easily accessible.
Either they're a Type A personality which includes narcissism.
Or they're deeply insecure about themselves, and therefore to avoid or repress the pain or anxiety of being or not being something they don't want or want to be, they exaggerate about themselves. It arises mainly due to a poor self-esteem and in some cases, delusional thoughts. When they brag, they think that others will respect them and give them more attention. It is a type of defense mechanism that helps them cope with anxiety and assures them that they're good enough. However they may not realize what they're doing because their insecurities are repressed somewhere in the unconscious part of their mind which is not easily accessible.
Everyone is a psychologist these days. Y'all should get yourself a fukkin office and charge fees
Well granted it's doesn't have the finesse of the pertinent commentary such as 'no you are', but there still may be something to be said for it.
Certificate on the wall will say "Master Nutter - Graduate of Canadian Content University".
Canada's mens rowing team left Rio as a complete BUST. Not winning a single medal, failing to qualify in events they hoped to compete for podiums. This from a team that had claimed the premier prize in rowing, the Gold Medal in Men's 8s in 1984, 1992 and 2008 and claiming silver in 2012.
It springs directly from the decision by Rowing Canada not to compete in the 8s, hoping to splice and dice some medals by stacking the lower ranks of boats with the top rowers. It was a disastrous decision.
The 8s provides the heart and lungs of any rowing program, and removing it robbed it of its soul. The decision makers deserve to lose their jobs for utter stupidity, and failing to maintain the integrity of Canadian rowing.
It springs directly from the decision by Rowing Canada not to compete in the 8s, hoping to splice and dice some medals by stacking the lower ranks of boats with the top rowers. It was a disastrous decision.
The 8s provides the heart and lungs of any rowing program, and removing it robbed it of its soul. The decision makers deserve to lose their jobs for utter stupidity, and failing to maintain the integrity of Canadian rowing.
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LOL, have you seen how Canadian women are doing? Gubmint very involved in Women's athletics.
You've got 2.4 times as many gold medals as Great Britain - despite having 5 times Great Britain's population.
You do the maths.
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Arise, Sir Mo!
Mo Farah became the first British track and field athlete to win three Olympic gold medals as he retained his 10,000m title with a thrilling victory in Rio.
The 33-year-old overcame a mid-race fall and powered clear of the field in the final 100m to win in 27 minutes five seconds.
Kenya's Paul Tanui took silver, with Ethiopia's Tamirat Tola in third.
Farah returns to the track on Wednesday as he begins the defence of the 5,000m title he also won at London 2012.
Rio Olympics 2016: Mo Farah makes history by winning 10,000m gold
BBC News
14 August 2016
Farah wins brilliant third Olympic gold, despite falling during the race
Mo Farah became the first British track and field athlete to win three Olympic gold medals as he retained his 10,000m title with a thrilling victory in Rio.
The 33-year-old overcame a mid-race fall and powered clear of the field in the final 100m to win in 27 minutes five seconds.
Kenya's Paul Tanui took silver, with Ethiopia's Tamirat Tola in third.
Farah returns to the track on Wednesday as he begins the defence of the 5,000m title he also won at London 2012.
"I've won an Olympic gold for three of my children," he said. "Now I'd like to win the 5,000m gold for my little boy."
Should he win that race, Farah will become the first man since Finland's Lasse Viren in 1976 to retain two Olympic distance titles.
He has already achieved the world double-double, having successfully defended his 10,000m and 5,000m titles in Beijing last year.
Farah tripped and fell during the race but still went on to win it
He performs his trademark 'Mobot' as he crosses the line
Farah looked comfortable at the back of the field in Rio, choosing his moment to pick his way through the pack.
His hopes briefly looked in danger when he was accidentally tripped by training partner Galen Rupp with 16 laps to go, but he recovered to surge past Tanui on the home straight.
"I wasn't going to let it go," he said. "I got up quickly. I thought about my family. It made me emotional. I thought 'get through, get through'. I believed in myself."
Farah's compatriots Andy Vernon and Ross Millington finished 25th and 31st respectively.
The first British track and field athlete to claim three Olympic golds poses with his prize
Farah will match the achievement of Lasse Viren if he retains his 5,000m Olympic title next week
'Simply wonderful' - what they said
Olympic silver medallist and former world champion Steve Cram: "The manner of his victory was a familiar one, but this takes him into a place where no other British athlete has been.
"It was simply wonderful distance running from Mo Farah. He tripped up, fell, and still won and did it the only way Mo Farah could do."
Former British 10,000m Olympic bromze medallist Brendan Foster said: "The plan that we've read about and listened to the Kenyans talk about didn't unfold. Mo was tested in the latter stages of the race but that was absolutely brilliant.
"The greatest distance runners of all time - he is now keeping them company."
BBC Sport's chief sports writer Tom Fordyce: "Not since the 10,000m at the Worlds in Daegu five summers ago have we seen Farah behind in a major track final.
"However this man, who joins the most select of elite groups in successfully defending an Olympic 10,000m title, refuses to be beaten - by a rival ahead with 150m to go, by a fall, by anyone in a global final in eight attempts. And there may yet be more to come."
Sally Gunnell was the 1992 Olympic women's 400m hurdles champion and enjoyed watching Farah
American actor Samuel L. Jackson was impressed Farah took care of his race in Rio
Rio Olympics 2016: Mo Farah makes history by winning 10,000m gold - BBC Sport
*****************************************************************************
Another day, another gold medal and world record for Great Britain in the Velodrome.
Laura Trott became the first British woman to win three Olympic gold medals as Great Britain's women set a new world record to retain their team pursuit title in Rio.
Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald clocked four minutes 10.236 seconds to beat the United States in the final.
Canada claimed the bronze after beating New Zealand in the bronze medal final.
Becky James added keirin silver for Great Britain soon after.
Great Britain are also guaranteed gold AND silver in the men's individual sprint final on Sunday afternoon, with Laura Trott's fiancée Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner winning their respective semi-finals yesterday afternoon.
Rio Olympics 2016: Laura Trott makes history as GB's women win team pursuit
GB smash world record (again) and win gold in women's team pursuit against USA
Laura Trott became the first British woman to win three Olympic gold medals as Great Britain's women set a new world record to retain their team pursuit title in Rio.
Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald clocked four minutes 10.236 seconds to beat the United States in the final.
Becky James added keirin silver for Great Britain soon after.
Trott, 24, won gold in the team pursuit and omnium at London 2012.
She could add a fourth when she defends her title in the latter on Tuesday as she closes in on Sir Chris Hoy's record of six Olympic gold medals.
"I could not be prouder right now," said Trott, the fiancee of Jason Kenny, who goes for his second gold of the Games - and fifth overall - in Sunday's sprint final.
Great Britain's girls after winning the gold in the women's team puruit yesterday. Great Britain also defeated the United States in the final of the team pursuit at London 2012
Gold for Great Britain, silver for USA, bronze for Canada
Medals table (Top 10)
............................ G.....S.....B.....Total
1. United States...24..18....18.......60
2. China...............13...11....17.......41
3 Great Britain....10...13.....7.......30
4. Germany..........8......5......3.......16
5. Japan................7......3.....14......24
6. Russia...............6.......9......8......23
7. Australia...........6.......7.....9.......22
8. Italy...................6.......7.....5.......18
9. South Korea.....6.......3.....4.......14
10. France............5.......8.....5.......18
Earlier, Canada beat New Zealand to win the bronze medal.
Great Britain's victory continued their track cycling dominance in Rio after the men's team pursuit win on Friday.
"This means the world to me," said Rowsell-Shand, who now has two Olympic gold medals following team pursuit victory with Trott in 2012.
"I won gold four years ago, but this was a much harder battle. It has not all been going our way over the last two years, but we pulled together."
Analysis
"It was phenomenal," said Sir Chris Hoy. "USA attacked at the start, but the Brits responded. Laura produced a two-lap spell that turned things around, America lost a rider and the gap got bigger and bigger.
"It is so great to see the celebrations. So much work has gone into this and it is great to see the hard work paying off."
Great Britain's Becky James won silver in the women's keirin, with Elis Ligtlee of the Netherlands getting gold and Anna Meares of Australia getting bronze
Rio Olympics 2016: Laura Trott makes history as GB's women win team pursuit - BBC Sport
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So nobody's posting about British success in the Olympics on that forum?
If you say so...
Mo Farah. Has a little lie down during the race and STILL goes on to win it!
From the rowing lake to the cycling track and finally Mo Farah's glory run, Saturday in Rio was bathed in British gold
Jim White, Rio de Janeiro
14 AUGUST 2016
The Telegraph
Saturday in Rio ended as it began – bathed in British gold. As millions back home sat in front of their television mainlining caffeine to ensure they were awake to witness history unfold, the great Mo Farah ran to glory in the 10,000 metres.
Mo Farah celebrates after winning the 10,000 metres CREDIT: REUTERS
Eclipsing the finest field of distance runners in the world, in Rio’s booming athletics stadium, Farah defended the Olympic title he won so emphatically in London. How the place rocked as he conducted a lap of honour, flourishing a union flag he had been given by an ecstatic British supporter in the crowd. Quite how he had the energy after running further than most of his fellow Britons go on holiday is but further evidence of his super-human abilities. Astonishingly, he was celebrating the third British gold medal accrued on a spectacular day of achievement. Which is exactly three times the number we managed to extract from the entire Atlanta Games 20 years ago.
Mo Farah celebrates his Rio gold CREDIT: AFP
There could not have been a better place to start the bullion rush than the rowing lake, in the heart of Rio’s plush Ipanema suburbs. Fringed by soaring hills, with Christ the Redeemer casting an eye over the proceedings from his mountain-top eyrie, here the national anthem rang out across the glittering water not long after breakfast on Saturday morning. In the most sublime of sporting venues – Rio’s postcard to the world - God Save The Queen was belted out by nine members of the British Olympic team. They had just won the men’s eight, the blue riband event of the rowing regatta, and together with their cox, the eight champion oarsmen stood proud on the podium after receiving their medals from Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee. This was their moment, the culmination of years of graft and dedication. The moment all their effort and muscle, sweat and vast intake of carbohydrate found purpose and fulfilment.
The men's eight team, Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Andrew Triggs-Hodge, Matthew Gotrel, Pete Reed, Paul Bennett, Matt Langridge and William Satch, and cox Phelan Hill after their victory CREDIT: REUTERS
But it was our moment too. The man in the union flag trousers in the packed grandstands beside the rowing lagoon’s finish line; the thousands of British supporters who had travelled across the globe to cheer on their heroes in the athletics stadium; the millions sitting vigil in front of their televisions all night back in their homeland: this was for us. Super Saturday had got off to the most golden of starts.
Britain's Katie Greves, Melanie Wilson, Frances Houghton, Polly Swann, Jessica Eddie, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Karen Bennett, Zoe Lee and cox Zoe de Toledo celebrate winning silver in the women's rowing eight CREDIT: AP
Soon the action picked up across the city. The women’s eight secured the silver medal – one of ten near misses thus far recorded by the British team. Andy Murray guaranteed he would win at least silver when he put himself once more in the final of the tennis, a tournament he won in 2012 and which he values as high as any grand slam.
Meanwhile in the velodrome Laura Trott, the elfin cyclist with steel-girders for calves, set off with lynx-eyed certainty in pursuit of her goal to become the first British sportswoman to win three Olympic golds. As part of the GB quartet, Trott was taking part in the team pursuit, that gruelling chase round the boards, in which four riders hurtle by at absurd speeds in Red Arrows-like formation, almost touching the wheel of the team mate in front. Trott and her team mates were up against the toughest opponents from the USA. But they were to be no match for these Britons. To a surge of noise from union flag-waving enthusiasts in the arena, GB took the lead and refused to relinquish it, breaking the world record in the process. It was ruthless, sure-footed, strong. Never for a second was it in doubt.
The quartet’s lead was immediately picked up by Rebecca James taking a silver medal in the keirin, a race in which the riders wind up to full pace by chasing behind a moped. And then Trott’s partner Jason Kenny qualified for the men’s sprint final, where he will take on Callum Skinner on Sunday night in a Brit-off for gold.
Kate Archibald, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell in the team pursuit final CREDIT: MATTHEW CHILDS/REUTERS
Pride, passion and prestige: for the British in Rio this is threatening to become the most dazzling of times - because Super Saturday was not an isolated moment of success. It followed Fantastic Friday, Wonderful Wednesday and not all that bad Monday. Gold has been the favoured hue of the British almost from the moment the opening ceremony introduced us to the athletes lining up behind Murray flourishing the flag in his GB team uniform, an unexpected combination of fisherman’s double-breasted pea coats, white Bermuda shorts and crimson training shoes.
It began with Adam Peaty, churning through the swimming pool, so quick his rivals could have hired speedboats and still not caught him. Then came Jack Laugher and Chris Mears, surprising us all – and themselves – winning gold in the synchronized springboard diving. And Joe Clarke, tearing down the whitewater canoe course in his kayak, producing handbrake turns in the churning water to sashay his way to gold. These were victories picking up huge television audiences back home. 8.9 million people watched the BBC coverage of Laugher and Mears victory on the boards. That’s roughly 8.899 million people more than had heard of the pair before their success.
The rowers and cyclists then took over in the chase for gold. As the men’s sprint team hurtled round the velodrome to triumph, in weather more Colwyn Bay than Copacabana a drenched and wind-battered Helen Glover and Heather Stanning became the first British women to defend an Olympic title, miles out ahead in the rowing pairs. There followed the cycle race that summed up British endeavour, that encapsulated the never-say-die refusal to quit. In an incredible race in the team pursuit, described by The Telegraph’s cycling correspondent Tom Cary as the most exciting sporting event he had ever seen, a quartet of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke broke the world record as they belted round the wooden floor of the velodrome. That they beat the Australians, who had lead all the way until overwhelmed by Wiggins’s unfailing determination, only added lustre to the moment. This was the Ashes on wheels. And the Aussies were vanquished.
The women's team pursuit gold medal winners celebrate victory CREDIT: JULIAN SIMMONDS
After he had received the fifth gold medal of his career, Wiggins was greeted in the velodrome by the two men he had just overhauled at the top of the British Olympic medal board. Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Steve Redgrave beamed in delight for the Wiggins record, before posing for pictures with him. There is a camaraderie, a shared sense of excellence among British Olympians, a bond that continues long into retirement.
To see the trio of sporting knights of the realm gathered to toast success, however, was something those of us of a certain age never thought we would see. For anyone brought up in the 70s and 80s, the Olympics were about the plucky Brit coming fourth. Things reached their nadir at the Atlanta Games in 1996 when Redgrave was responsible for delivering the only gold the entire team managed between them.
Everything changed when John Major introduced the National Lottery. At a stroke, he beefed up the sporting landscape. Thanks to the weekly donations made by those seeking a frankly statistically ludicrous jackpot, British sport was given the gift of money. Never mind the state-sponsored doping of the Russians, here was something far more effective: people-backed finance. Athletes who were previously obliged to juggle their jobs with their sport could go full-time, supported by full-time coaches and a gathering swell of resources in sports science and technology.
In the sports at which we had a traditional penchant – generally those that involved sitting down – it propelled our representatives to the top. We became world beaters. Rowers, sailors, cyclists and horse riders dominated their events. When they arrived at the Olympics, gold became the established British currency.
And it was not just the sedentary that benefitted. Swimmers, triathletes, runners and jumpers, all of them had the opportunity to be world class. So much has success become the expectation, the GB Team has come to Rio with a backroom member whose specific role is to “Manage Victory”. Her task is to negotiate our medal winners through the host of media and commercial opportunities that come their way after stepping on the podium. This week, she has been the hardest worker in Rio.
Though she will have to wait to shepherd Farah through his engagements. He has the 5,000 metres to come, the second stage of his ambition to become a double double Olympic champion. How he went for it in the Olympic stadium. As Greg Rutherford slipped down the field in the long jump, as Jessica Ennis-Hill wound up her arm in the javelin discipline of the heptathlon, Farah took control of his race. Running with a smooth ease, he could even pick himself up from a fall and still race to the front on the final bend. He galloped over the line to a deafening roar, giving his now traditional victory Mobot salute.
"We have all been incredibly proud to watch our athletes in the opening days of these Games, and we’re naturally delighted for everyone who has achieved an Olympic medal or a personal best,” Mark England, Chef de Mission of Team GB, said. “We have a lot more to do in the coming days but we have every confidence in the sports and talented individuals on the team."
More to do, more to come: there’s a thought. And as the further action unfolds this week in athletics, sailing, hockey and triathlon, as the great Charlotte Dujardin prepares to defend her title in the individual dressage, those back home can watch it all with growing optimism. We can follow our representatives as they take on the best and not hide our eyes. Four years on from the London Games we thought would surely mark the very summit of collective achievement, our team has improved yet again. Right now in Rio, post-Brexit Great Britain stands third in the medal table behind the United States and China. Our fellow countrymen, young, fit, polite and invariably delivering, are serving as the finest ambassadors for our national values as we could wish for. Britain's golden generation, we salute you.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics...e-to-the-cycling-track-and-finally-mo-farahs/
Jim White, Rio de Janeiro
14 AUGUST 2016
The Telegraph
Saturday in Rio ended as it began – bathed in British gold. As millions back home sat in front of their television mainlining caffeine to ensure they were awake to witness history unfold, the great Mo Farah ran to glory in the 10,000 metres.
Mo Farah celebrates after winning the 10,000 metres CREDIT: REUTERS
Eclipsing the finest field of distance runners in the world, in Rio’s booming athletics stadium, Farah defended the Olympic title he won so emphatically in London. How the place rocked as he conducted a lap of honour, flourishing a union flag he had been given by an ecstatic British supporter in the crowd. Quite how he had the energy after running further than most of his fellow Britons go on holiday is but further evidence of his super-human abilities. Astonishingly, he was celebrating the third British gold medal accrued on a spectacular day of achievement. Which is exactly three times the number we managed to extract from the entire Atlanta Games 20 years ago.
Mo Farah celebrates his Rio gold CREDIT: AFP
There could not have been a better place to start the bullion rush than the rowing lake, in the heart of Rio’s plush Ipanema suburbs. Fringed by soaring hills, with Christ the Redeemer casting an eye over the proceedings from his mountain-top eyrie, here the national anthem rang out across the glittering water not long after breakfast on Saturday morning. In the most sublime of sporting venues – Rio’s postcard to the world - God Save The Queen was belted out by nine members of the British Olympic team. They had just won the men’s eight, the blue riband event of the rowing regatta, and together with their cox, the eight champion oarsmen stood proud on the podium after receiving their medals from Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee. This was their moment, the culmination of years of graft and dedication. The moment all their effort and muscle, sweat and vast intake of carbohydrate found purpose and fulfilment.
The men's eight team, Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Andrew Triggs-Hodge, Matthew Gotrel, Pete Reed, Paul Bennett, Matt Langridge and William Satch, and cox Phelan Hill after their victory CREDIT: REUTERS
But it was our moment too. The man in the union flag trousers in the packed grandstands beside the rowing lagoon’s finish line; the thousands of British supporters who had travelled across the globe to cheer on their heroes in the athletics stadium; the millions sitting vigil in front of their televisions all night back in their homeland: this was for us. Super Saturday had got off to the most golden of starts.
Britain's Katie Greves, Melanie Wilson, Frances Houghton, Polly Swann, Jessica Eddie, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Karen Bennett, Zoe Lee and cox Zoe de Toledo celebrate winning silver in the women's rowing eight CREDIT: AP
Soon the action picked up across the city. The women’s eight secured the silver medal – one of ten near misses thus far recorded by the British team. Andy Murray guaranteed he would win at least silver when he put himself once more in the final of the tennis, a tournament he won in 2012 and which he values as high as any grand slam.
Meanwhile in the velodrome Laura Trott, the elfin cyclist with steel-girders for calves, set off with lynx-eyed certainty in pursuit of her goal to become the first British sportswoman to win three Olympic golds. As part of the GB quartet, Trott was taking part in the team pursuit, that gruelling chase round the boards, in which four riders hurtle by at absurd speeds in Red Arrows-like formation, almost touching the wheel of the team mate in front. Trott and her team mates were up against the toughest opponents from the USA. But they were to be no match for these Britons. To a surge of noise from union flag-waving enthusiasts in the arena, GB took the lead and refused to relinquish it, breaking the world record in the process. It was ruthless, sure-footed, strong. Never for a second was it in doubt.
The quartet’s lead was immediately picked up by Rebecca James taking a silver medal in the keirin, a race in which the riders wind up to full pace by chasing behind a moped. And then Trott’s partner Jason Kenny qualified for the men’s sprint final, where he will take on Callum Skinner on Sunday night in a Brit-off for gold.
Kate Archibald, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell in the team pursuit final CREDIT: MATTHEW CHILDS/REUTERS
Pride, passion and prestige: for the British in Rio this is threatening to become the most dazzling of times - because Super Saturday was not an isolated moment of success. It followed Fantastic Friday, Wonderful Wednesday and not all that bad Monday. Gold has been the favoured hue of the British almost from the moment the opening ceremony introduced us to the athletes lining up behind Murray flourishing the flag in his GB team uniform, an unexpected combination of fisherman’s double-breasted pea coats, white Bermuda shorts and crimson training shoes.
It began with Adam Peaty, churning through the swimming pool, so quick his rivals could have hired speedboats and still not caught him. Then came Jack Laugher and Chris Mears, surprising us all – and themselves – winning gold in the synchronized springboard diving. And Joe Clarke, tearing down the whitewater canoe course in his kayak, producing handbrake turns in the churning water to sashay his way to gold. These were victories picking up huge television audiences back home. 8.9 million people watched the BBC coverage of Laugher and Mears victory on the boards. That’s roughly 8.899 million people more than had heard of the pair before their success.
The rowers and cyclists then took over in the chase for gold. As the men’s sprint team hurtled round the velodrome to triumph, in weather more Colwyn Bay than Copacabana a drenched and wind-battered Helen Glover and Heather Stanning became the first British women to defend an Olympic title, miles out ahead in the rowing pairs. There followed the cycle race that summed up British endeavour, that encapsulated the never-say-die refusal to quit. In an incredible race in the team pursuit, described by The Telegraph’s cycling correspondent Tom Cary as the most exciting sporting event he had ever seen, a quartet of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke broke the world record as they belted round the wooden floor of the velodrome. That they beat the Australians, who had lead all the way until overwhelmed by Wiggins’s unfailing determination, only added lustre to the moment. This was the Ashes on wheels. And the Aussies were vanquished.
The women's team pursuit gold medal winners celebrate victory CREDIT: JULIAN SIMMONDS
After he had received the fifth gold medal of his career, Wiggins was greeted in the velodrome by the two men he had just overhauled at the top of the British Olympic medal board. Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Steve Redgrave beamed in delight for the Wiggins record, before posing for pictures with him. There is a camaraderie, a shared sense of excellence among British Olympians, a bond that continues long into retirement.
To see the trio of sporting knights of the realm gathered to toast success, however, was something those of us of a certain age never thought we would see. For anyone brought up in the 70s and 80s, the Olympics were about the plucky Brit coming fourth. Things reached their nadir at the Atlanta Games in 1996 when Redgrave was responsible for delivering the only gold the entire team managed between them.
Everything changed when John Major introduced the National Lottery. At a stroke, he beefed up the sporting landscape. Thanks to the weekly donations made by those seeking a frankly statistically ludicrous jackpot, British sport was given the gift of money. Never mind the state-sponsored doping of the Russians, here was something far more effective: people-backed finance. Athletes who were previously obliged to juggle their jobs with their sport could go full-time, supported by full-time coaches and a gathering swell of resources in sports science and technology.
In the sports at which we had a traditional penchant – generally those that involved sitting down – it propelled our representatives to the top. We became world beaters. Rowers, sailors, cyclists and horse riders dominated their events. When they arrived at the Olympics, gold became the established British currency.
And it was not just the sedentary that benefitted. Swimmers, triathletes, runners and jumpers, all of them had the opportunity to be world class. So much has success become the expectation, the GB Team has come to Rio with a backroom member whose specific role is to “Manage Victory”. Her task is to negotiate our medal winners through the host of media and commercial opportunities that come their way after stepping on the podium. This week, she has been the hardest worker in Rio.
Though she will have to wait to shepherd Farah through his engagements. He has the 5,000 metres to come, the second stage of his ambition to become a double double Olympic champion. How he went for it in the Olympic stadium. As Greg Rutherford slipped down the field in the long jump, as Jessica Ennis-Hill wound up her arm in the javelin discipline of the heptathlon, Farah took control of his race. Running with a smooth ease, he could even pick himself up from a fall and still race to the front on the final bend. He galloped over the line to a deafening roar, giving his now traditional victory Mobot salute.
"We have all been incredibly proud to watch our athletes in the opening days of these Games, and we’re naturally delighted for everyone who has achieved an Olympic medal or a personal best,” Mark England, Chef de Mission of Team GB, said. “We have a lot more to do in the coming days but we have every confidence in the sports and talented individuals on the team."
More to do, more to come: there’s a thought. And as the further action unfolds this week in athletics, sailing, hockey and triathlon, as the great Charlotte Dujardin prepares to defend her title in the individual dressage, those back home can watch it all with growing optimism. We can follow our representatives as they take on the best and not hide our eyes. Four years on from the London Games we thought would surely mark the very summit of collective achievement, our team has improved yet again. Right now in Rio, post-Brexit Great Britain stands third in the medal table behind the United States and China. Our fellow countrymen, young, fit, polite and invariably delivering, are serving as the finest ambassadors for our national values as we could wish for. Britain's golden generation, we salute you.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics...e-to-the-cycling-track-and-finally-mo-farahs/
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