What’s next? Weddings, nights out ... and a good fry-up
now. We beat China… it just proves what we’re capable of.’
Food was high on priority lists, with Miss Quek craving a good pizza, diver Tom Daley saying he could not wait for a fry-up and triathlete Jonny Brownlee looking forward to fish and chips.
Peaty admitted he had spent the last seven days in Rio tucking into McDonald’s adding: ‘We’ve all been doing a supplies run in the village, coming back with about 20 burgers each.’
Although he was disappointed not to have taken home gold, silver medallist Jonny Brownlee, sitting next to his older brother Alistair, said: ‘It’s hard when someone’s running away from you and there’s your gold medal gone.
‘But at the same time I’d rather it be Alistair than a French guy or someone like that.’
The men’s rowing team said they had overindulged in the ‘very good night life’ in Rio and were planning some downtime back at home. Mohamed Sbihi, 28, a member of the triumphant coxless four, said he was looking forward to ‘a nice dinner with the family’
For rower Helen Glover, who has been left with ten days to plan her wedding, to TV naturalist Steve Backshall, there is little chance to relax.
Miss Glover, 30, who won gold in the coxless pair with partner Heather Stanning, said: ‘I knew that if I was going to get married after the Olympics I wouldn’t be able to plan it.’
With many looking ahead to the 2020 Games, rower Katherine Grainger admitted it was ‘highly unlikely’ she would compete in Tokyo.
The 40-year-old said: ‘I’ll just cheer from the sidelines.’ Joking that she had no idea how she would cope with ‘normal life’, she added: ‘It’s a bit like leaving school and thinking, “What do I want to do with my life?” That’s hard when you’ve been at this level for so long, doing what I do.’
But while celebrations continued in Britain, a Chinese journalist reminded the press conference that the mood was not so cheery in Asia.
China finished below Team GB in the medal table. Asked whether Britain had spent more money than China on the preparations, Bill Sweeney, chief executive of the British Olympic Association said: ‘I would be surprised if we actually outspent China.’
When quizzed about the secret to Team GB’s success, he said: ‘We just had a fantastic group of athletes. They weren’t just exemplary on the field of play, they were exemplary off the field of play. They were real ambassadors for their country.’
‘Real ambassadors for their country’