The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Terrific Tokyo will show Rio was not team GB's peak
Brazilian bounty has rightly put us among sporting powerhouses
Brazil promised the most colourful Games ever, and the predominant colour was gold, silver and bronze for red, white and blue. This sporting carnival had samba style and plenty of British pomp and circumstance.
It was a Games of firsts for Team GB, and not just on the field of play.
There were first gold medals in diving, gymnastics, golf and women’s hockey.
Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first Olympian to win eight medals with his farewell team pursuit gold and Laura Trott became the first woman to win four golds.
Aberdeen’s Katherine Grainger was the first woman to win five medals, the Brownlee brothers the first British siblings to win gold and silver in the same event and Nicola Adams the first to retain a boxing title since Harry Mallin in 1920.
Becoming the first nation to have bettered their medal tally at the Games after hosting is the standout statistic.
There will be time to enjoy the moment, with parades to enjoy and parties to plan, but reality soon bites and Tokyo looms.
The British Olympic Association have already been on three reconnaissance trips to Japan and next month hope to finalise the deal for their preparation camp.
Some of the class of 2016 will move on but this is not an ageing team. Swimmer Adam Peaty is 21, Jade Jones is a double Olympic taekwondo champion at 24, and there are many others.
Besides, Nick Skelton was still winning gold in Rio aged 58.
There is evidence, also, of impressive succession planning to give cause for optimism.
Sir Chris Hoy retired after London with his legacy secure – six golds and one silver. Jason Kenny came along in Rio and equalled that.
“Tokyo will be tougher than Rio,” said British Olympic Association chief executive Bill Sweeney.
“In Tokyo, the domestic team will be much stronger than here and the Chinese team will be desperate to make a strong statement. They had a young and developing squad in Rio.
“Australia won’t lie down, they’ll come back stronger. There’ll be a full Russian delegation there, too. It’ll be a very tough Games, more of a level playing ground.
“It will be tough to repeat, but the general feeling is that we can carry on this success.”
Team GB were fourth on the medal table in Beijing, third in London and second in Rio. They’ve also improved their medal performance in five consecutive Games – from the low of just one gold in Atlanta 1996 to Rio – this success story is certainly not an overnight one.
They are now an established sporting superpower, according to UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl, whose organisation has distributed more than £300million in funding since 2012, with a return of £4.5million per medal.
Planning and preparation remain at the heart of success and National Lottery funding, administered by UK Sport, is integral.
The work has already started, with 40% of the money spent in the last four years targeted at athletes who are working towards Tokyo.
“Of course, we could win more medals in Tokyo,” said Nicholl.
“It’s premature to be talking about targets and we need to deal with reality. We’ll have to see what athletes will do, who will retire and who will continue, but we want to sustain success this momentum.
“We are well advanced with our planning, every sport has developed their strategic plans for Tokyo, they were submitted in the spring and we’ve already given our feedback. We’ve also got five new sports that we need to deal with and we’ll pick up that conversation as soon as we get back.”
Chef de mission Mark England looked to have an unenviable task when he was appointed team leader. Steeped in Olympic experience, he always exuded confidence while deftly managing expectations.
He said: “We are in that powerhouse bracket now. Going into Tokyo will be really tough, but we are confident.”
“It will be tough to repeat, but the general feeling is that we can carry on this success” “We are in that powerhouse bracket now – going into Tokyo will be really tough”