24 REASONS GOLDEN FOR
THERE will be a recordbreaking Welsh overseas Olympics contingent in Rio next month with 24 sports stars, including 15 men and nine women, competing across 11 sports in the 31st Games in Brazil.
A record 30 Welsh athletes competed in London, while the previous best for an overseas Games was the 17 who took part in Athens 2004.
The most successful Olympics for Welsh athletes was the 1920 Antwerp Games where they returned with four gold medals when Christopher Jones and Paulo Radmilovic won water polo gold while John AinsworthDavies and Cecil Griffiths were in the title-winning 4x400m relay team.
London 2012 was the largest overall Welsh medal haul of seven, when taekwondo star Jade Jones, cyclist Geraint Thomas and rower Tom James won gold, boxer Fred Evans, rower Chris Bartley and sailor Hannah Mills claimed silver, while Sarah Thomas secured bronze in the hockey.
But while those results four years ago and the number of our sports stars completing their own “Road to Rio” might point to a successful London legacy, the one major concern is athletics, which remain the blue riband events of the Games.
Wales will only have one track and field star at the Olympics for the first time since Helsinki in 1952 among the 80-strong Great Britain team after 400m runner Seren Bundy-Davies was picked in the individual event and the relay.
Hurdler Rhys Williams has been overlooked despite running two Olympics qualification times and finishing fifth at the European Championships in Amsterdam, where he was the leading British runner. Williams appealed but was unsuccessful.
This is compared to five participants at the London 2012 Games.
Established stars like Brett Morse and former world champion Dai Greene have failed to make the cut after battling form and fitness, while this year’s Games come too soon in the careers of promising youngsters like hurdler David Omoregie and sprinter Hannah Brier.
It might be different in four years’ time in Tokyo when some of our promising generation make the breakthrough onto the senior stage.
But the fact that long jumper Lyn Jones remains Wales’ only individual track and field gold medal when he claimed victory in Tokyo 1964 will remain a cause for concern.
Until he is joined by someone else on the top place of the podium in an Olympics stadium.
But it is cycling and swimming where Wales boast their largest representation with five and four respectively.
It comes just weeks after the success of the Welsh football team at Euro 2016.
Sport Wales has set a rolling medal target of 6-10 medals across two Olympic Games cycles as they look to build on the success of the Wales football team at Euro 2016
“With such tough qualification standards, being selected to represent Team GB is impressive in itself and the athletes, and their coaches, deserve our congratulations for the hard work and dedication they have put in over many years,” said Sport Wales chief executive.
“These Welsh athletes include current and former World, European and British champions and they are a group at the top of their profession capable of making their mark in Rio.
“The £7m of National Lottery money we invest in the whole elite sport system every year is proving to be a good value investment given the success of Welsh elite sport in recent years and the number of younger and emerging athletes we have in line for major events in the future.
“Wales makes up around 5% of the UK population but we regularly outshine what should be expected of us. I’m proud to say our athletes will make up around 6.5% of Team GB in Rio.
“These athletes are another set of role models who will provide inspiration for young people watching back home and inspire even more people in Wales to do sport.”