Great Britain has become a “sporting superpower” after the team was guaranteed to end the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in second place in the overall medal table, its best performance at the games for over a century.
Liz Nicholl, chief executive of UK Sport, the government-backed body that funds the country’s elite athletes, told reporters in Rio that the country’s sportspeople had become the envy of the world, while suggesting that the haul from the next games in Tokyo in 2020 could be even larger.
Britain had ended Saturday with 27 golds, one ahead of China. On Sunday, the Asian country had steadily run out of medal hopes, with only a handful of events yet to be completed on the final day of competition.