We discuss the most decorated British Olympian of all-time since the inception of the Games
Great Britain has produced some stellar names at the Olympic Games who have gone on to win numerous accolades in the sport. There have been various names who have created history for the country like Rebecca Adlington, Sir Mo Farah among other names.
Winning a medal at the Olympic medal is one of the biggest honours in sport. Britain has sent athletes to every Summer and Winter Games, along with France and Switzerland, since the start of the Olympics’ modern era in 1896.
Great Britain & Northern Ireland has won 851 medals at the Summer Olympics and 32 at the Winter Olympics. This makes them one of the largest medal bearers in Olympic history.
Great Britain has hosted the Summer Games on three occasions – 1908, 1948 and 2012, all in London.
Team GB’s top medallists
Bradley Wiggins – eight medals (five gold, one silver, two bronze)
Chris Hoy – seven (six gold, one silver)
Jason Kenny – seven (six gold, one silver)
Steve Redgrave – six (five gold, one bronze)
Charlotte Dujardin – six (three gold, one silver, two bronze)
Ben Ainslie – five (four gold, one silver)
Jack Beresford – five (three gold, two silver)
Henry Taylor – five (three gold, two bronze)
Max Whitlock – five (two gold, three bronze)
Katherine Grainger – five (one gold, four silver)
Kathleen McKane Godfree – five (one gold, two silver, two bronze)
We take a look at the most successful male and female Olympian for Britain during the 2020 Tokyo Games with 11,326 athletes and 339 events in 33 sports.
Most decorated British male Olympian: Sir Bradley Wiggins
Bradley Wiggins is Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian with eight medals, one more than cyclists Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny. He competed professionally between 2001 and 2016.
In 2012, Wiggins also became the first Brit to win the Tour de France and claimed the prestigious Hour Record in 2015. His first gold came at the individual pursuit in the 2004 Olympic in Athens. He went one step further winning both the individual pursuit and team pursuit in Beijing in 2008.
Wiggins is one of the few to hold the British, Olympic and world time-trial titles at the same time. The Brit ended his career on a high when he arrived in Brazil for the 2016 Rio Games. He won gold in the team pursuit to attain his fifth gold of his Olympic career.
Eventually, he retired from all forms of professional cycling on 28 December 2016. He was awarded a CBE in 2019.
Most decorated British female Olympian: Charlotte Dujardin
Charlotte Dujardin became Britain’s most decorated female Olympian of all time after her dressage bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She was tied with legend Katherine Grainger and tennis and badminton player Kathleen McKane Godfree, after winning a bronze earlier this week.
Dujardin won gold at London 2012 and in Rio 2016 on her horse Valegro. However, after a change in horses this time around, she scored 88.543 with Gio to secure her second bronze in 10 days.
Talking to BBC, she says: (h/t Guardian)
“I’m a bit speechless because there are so many incredible sports people, women that have achieved so much and now […] I’ve done that and more. I mean, you only dream of these things happening and it’s actually happened so I can’t believe it.”
Since debuting in dressage in 2011, she has won the Olmypic, World and European championships. She is surely going to end her career in the sport as a legend who helped Great Britain achieve new heights.
She won double gold at London 2012, individual gold and team silver in Rio, before collecting two bronze medals in Tokyo to finish with six medals.
