10 moments that defined Team GB’s gold rush at the Rio 2016 Olympics
1. Adam Peaty started Team GB’s gold rush when he won the men’s 100m breastroke title. The 21-year-old broke his own world record and became the first British man to win a swimming Olympic gold since 1988. Peaty followed it up with silver in the men’s 4 x 100m medley relay.
2. Helen Glover and Heather Stanning secured the first of a flurry of British rowing golds by defending their women’s pair title. It was the world champions’ 39th consecutive race win and was followed by further Team GB victories by the men’s four and, later, the men’s eight.
3. Sir Bradley Wiggins achieved the glorious farewell he craved when he led the men’s pursuit team to gold in the velodrome. He, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke set a new world record to beat Australia and make Wiggins, 36, the first Briton to win eight Olympic medals.
Read more: These are the 50 most marketable athletes at Rio 2016
4. Max Whitlock lit the touchpaper on Super Sunday when he won Britain’s first ever Olympic gold medal in gymnastics – and then followed it up with another just hours later. His floor and pommel horse triumphs followed an earlier bronze in the all-around event.
5. Justin Rose celebrated golf’s return to the Olympic Games after a 112-year absence by edging out Open champion Henrik Stenson in a thrilling final-round duel. The jubilant Englishman said his success felt even better than his solitary Major win at the 2013 US Open.
6. Wimbledon champion Andy Murray rounded off Team GB’s most successful day at an overseas Olympics by defending his London 2012 singles gold. Murray eventually saw off Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in a gladiatorial four-set epic before the two men shared a poignant embrace.
7. Charlotte Dujardin became only the second British woman to win three Olympic golds when she retained her individual dressage crown. The 31-year-old from Enfield, who won two titles at London 2012, and horse Valegro scored 93.857 per cent to keep Team GB second in the medal table.
8. Laura Trott and Jason Kenny cemented their status as Team GB’s golden couple to round off another display of British track cycling dominance. Trott, 24, retained her omnium title to win a second gold in Rio and become the only British woman with four Olympics gold medals, while Kenny, 28, equalled Sir Chris Hoy’s tally of six career golds by winning the keirin, team sprint and individual sprint.
9. Alistair Brownlee became the first athlete to win successive Olympic triathlon titles as he and younger brother Jonny claimed gold and silver in Rio. In the women’s race 48 hours later, Britain’s Vicky Holland pipped flatmate Non Stanford to the bronze medal.
10. Goalkeeper Maddie Hinch stole the show as Great Britain’s women won a first ever hockey gold. Hinch saved all four Dutch attempts in a decisive shoot-out after a gripping final had ended 3-3, while captain Kate Richardson-Walsh and Helen Richardson-Walsh became the first married couple to win gold for Team GB since 1920.