GIRL POWER!
Team GB chief believes our women, who will outnumber men for first time at an Olympics, will steal the Tokyo show
BRITISH women have been tipped to make history in Tokyo, with the head of Team GB boldly predicting that 2020 will be ‘ the year of the female Olympian’.
In his first interview of the Olympic year, chef de mission Mark England confirmed that Great Britain are set to send more women than men to a Games for the first time. And he believes the country’s women will steal the show and ‘change the focus on women’s sport for ever’.
At Rio 2016, the gender balance of the Team GB squad was 55-45 in favour of men and that split was replicated with the athletes who took home medals; 71 men and 59 women.
If the medal split matches the team make-up in Tokyo, more British women will be on the podium than men for the first time in a summer Olympics.
‘This is going to be the year of the female Olympian,’ claimed England, speaking to Sportsmail at the BOA’s HQ in London. ‘Of the roughly 380 athletes who will go to the Games, it will probably be something like a 55-45, 53-47 split in favour of women. That is fantastic.
‘I think this is the benchmark for all other National Olympic Committees. I’m not sure it’s been done by any of the big ones before. I’d be surprised if we weren’t the first. It’s a strong direction for the Olympic movement and we are happy to be the forerunner of that.
‘But it is not just the number of females we are talking about. We have massive Olympic champions like Jade Jones in taekwondo and Laura Kenny in cycling. And we have a whole raft of female world champions, from Lauren Price in boxing and Bianca Walkden in taekwondo to Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dina Asher-Smith in athletics. It is fantastic in terms of the legacy that this
particular Olympic team will leave for women and girls across Great Britain. It will change the face of Olympic teams and change the focus on women’s sport for ever.’
Team GB were second in the medal table four years ago, with 67 medals, including 27 gold — their best overseas Olympic tally. In December, UK Sport said they were ‘quietly confident’ of surpassing the record- breaking feats of 2016. And while England refused to be drawn on any medal predictions, he did not rule out making more history with the biggest squad Team GB have sent to an overseas Games since Barcelona 1992.
‘That was punchy,’ admitted England, in response to the UK Sport prediction, which came from Chelsea Warr, who has since quit as performance director. ‘We know it is getting tougher and the new sports haven’t necessarily favoured us. But the results that came out of world championships in 2019 were stronger than those that came out in 2015, so we know the team is in great shape. ‘There is a backbone of huge talent and I think the team will deliver those big medal moments again to inspire a nation back home and bring the country together. ‘We are confident the British public will get to see that again and celebrate it and have a few beers and hugs.’ England’s confidence comes from having, in his opinion, the ‘ best preparation and physical footprint in Tokyo and Japan of any National Olympic Committee’.
They have a ‘ worldclass’ preOlympics camp in Yokohama, where an ‘ army’ of Japanese volunteers are helping out and locals are embracing their visitors by putting their own ‘ Go GB’ branding around the city.
‘It’s a little piece of Britain in Japan,’ said England. ‘There is an avalanche behind Great Britain in Yokohama.’
During the Games, Team GB are transforming a school into their own performance lodge near the Olympic village.
‘We know where our performance edge is,’ said England. ‘I’ve been on every Olympics campaign since 2000 and this is without question the most comprehensive incountry footprint, the greatest detail, the greatest performance-edge environment that we have ever offered.’
England hopes to inspire his athletes by using imagery from the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and engaging with members of that team. ‘We call it an unbreakable chain between the class of 2020 and the class of 1896,’ England explained. ‘We are using photographic and video evidence from 1964 in our presentations.
‘We believe that how we unify the team will give us a significant performance advantage. We are doing a lot of work so everybody understands their place in Olympic history and the importance of representing Great Britain.
‘In Rio, each athlete received a book with the names of every member of the team on it and the headline: Once an Olympian, always an Olympian.
‘We are working on something at the moment which 380 athletes receive individually but collectively it makes a whole, so they are an individual as part of a whole. Every Olympic campaign we try to raise the bar and that is certainly an element which we are working on.’
Team GB’s Tokyo preparations have been partly overshadowed in recent weeks by a row over sponsorship rules. A group of high-profile athletes, including Mo Farah, Johnson-Thompson, Laura Muir and Adam Gemili, sent a legal letter to the BOA challenging their interpretation of Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter which governs an athlete’s ability to engage with their own commercial partners during the Games.
The BOA hit back in a statement in December saying they were ‘dismayed by the ongoing legal tactics’. England insisted the dispute had not been a distraction. ‘ We are working closely with that athlete group to resolve it,’ he added.
‘We are confident it will benefit all athletes.’