Paul Hayward: Mission Accomplished: Medal-laden Tokyo Olympics campaign a triumph for Team GB

With another flurry from boxing to modern pentathlon to athletics, Britain’s Olympians earned the right on Saturday to call this a third consecutive successful campaign. Or, to frame it in more British terms, they turned the post-Games review into a debate about nuances.

Gold medals aren’t minor details, some will cry, and indeed the gold rush has slowed, from 29 at London in 2012 to 27 in Rio (2016) and down again now to the low Twenties in Japan. But you don’t need to be a Team GB spin doctor to see that a breadth of medal-winning power partly offsets the slippage on the podium’s highest step, which was largely caused by the turmoil in British rowing.

When Joe Choong completed a modern pentathlon double following Kate French’s win in the women’s event, Britain eased to 20 golds, with the possibility of more to come in Sunday’s boxing, where Lauren Price is guaranteed at least silver, and cycling. Earlier in the day Galal Yafai had won the men’s flyweight gold with consummate authority. An encouraging bronze medal for Josh Kerr in the men’s 1,500m and a third-place finish for Tom Daley on the diving board helped settle a few nerves for Britain’s Olympic overlords.

The Rio total of 67 medals looks out of reach but the London score of 65 is within range. To highlight the dip in gold medals won isn’t unreasonable. If you aim high, with public money, people are entitled to notice a slide in the number of champions. At the same time Britain’s Olympians have won fewer events outright without stinting on inspiration and excitement.

Before National Lottery funding, Britain had no pretence of being a top-five Olympic nation. Keyensian economics changed all that. And with the extravagance has come an obsession with the medals table. In a pandemic, the British public didn’t approach the Tokyo Olympics as an arms race. They wanted entertainment and an acceptable level of success. On both counts the athletes hit the target.

Listing the gold medallists in Tokyo conveys the range of stories and accomplishments by athletes who are, in most cases, still recognisable from everyday life. No country could look at Britain’s champions (or most of their silver and bronze medallists) and see money-doped automatons.

For more than a fortnight the ennui that hangs over Britain from Covid and bad summer weather has been lifted by the feast of TV images from a land eight time zones away. By next week, when Premier League hype returns, many of these victorious Olympians will melt back into the wider sporting picture. The Olympic extravaganza ends suddenly and ‘normality’ is quick to move back in. The athletes deserve more and longer lasting recognition.

A selling point was that many legends successfully defended their exalted status while fresh faces emerged in new sports, from interesting backgrounds - and age groups. Others were rewarded for relentlessly coming back for more. Tom Daley (with Matty Lee in the men’s synchronised 10m platform) was perhaps the British gold medallist who unleashed the most joy back home. You would be hard pushed to think of an athlete who better exemplifies what a modern Olympic team would ideally be. He’s also a guaranteed future knitting champion, should that become an Olympic sport.

Laura Kenny’s triumph in becoming the first British woman to win gold at three consecutive Games was another affirmation of what a great Olympic career looks like, from youthful talent, through brilliant execution, to motherhood and all the way on to longevity, with a crushing victory in the Tokyo women’s Madison with Katie Archibald to vindicate her persistence. For generations students will turn to Laura Kenny’s story to understand what makes the very highest grade of Olympic champion.

The big names underpinned Britain’s third consecutive Olympic campaign of 60-plus medals. Adam Peaty (100m breaststroke) was the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title, Duncan Scott became the first Briton to take four medals home from a single Games, Jonny Brownlee won gold at last in the mixed triathlon relay and Max Whitlock collected his sixth medal while brilliantly defending his pommel horse title. In the pool, Tom Dean overcame two bouts of Covid since January to win two golds. Reliable as ever, sailing chipped in with Giles Scott, Dylan Fletcher, Stuart Bithell, Hannah Mills and Elidh McIntyre, who are all Olympic champions.

At the other end of the vast Olympic spectrum Britain embraced the ‘new’ sports, future-proofing with 13-year-old Sky Brown in skateboarding (bronze) and Beth Shriever, Charlotte Worthington (both gold) and Kye White (silver) in BMX riding. Tom Pidcock (gold) emerged as the new star of men’s cross-country mountain biking and an omnium gold for Matt Walls moved him up the hierarchy in British cycling. Success in the newer sports suggests Britain is adapting well to culture change.

The halcyon days of a second-place finish at Rio 2016 are over. In Brazil, Team GB rode the funding cycle and euphoria of London 2012 to an even greater and unsustainable high.

London was the start, not the end, of the boom. With the silver-medal finish in Rio came a dilemma British Olympic sport was bound to struggle with. Anything less than second in the Tokyo medals table would be seen as a backward step. Expectations had mutated. A long-term come-down was inevitable.

There was an extra complication for the apparatchiks. Public money was on the line. State funding. The doomed bets of corner shop punters were gushing into the travelling show that Team GB had become. Accountability - invisible in politics, now - would be waiting for them at the arrivals gate post-Tokyo. Once they passed 60 medals, and reached 20 golds, with uplifting stories everywhere you looked, it was largely mission accomplished.

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