Rio became a home from home for Team GB and the medal count tells an incredible story.

Team GB is celebrating its most successful Games of modern times in Rio 2016 , with a haul of 67 medals, our best tally in more than 100 years. Our Olympic aces took gold in 27 events and brought us medals in 19 of the 23 sports, including magnificent Mo Farah’s “double double” on the track. It means that Britain have become the first ever nation to better their medal haul at a Games that immediately follows a home Olympics.

The British Olympic Association (BOA) initially set Team GB the target of winning 48 medals in Rio, one more than they achieved at the 2008 Beijing Games, in the hope of setting a new record for an overseas Olympics. Given the home support and preparation that went into the 2012 London Olympics, the existing best of 65 medals appeared to be a stretch too far, but the BOA could not have been more wrong.

Britain surged past their target of 48 medals with five days left of the Games, and the women’s 4x400m relay bronze on Saturday night saw Team GB claim their 66th medal to beat the London record and confirm that Rio was indeed Great Britain’s most successful ever Olympic Games.

Lord Coe, chairman of the British Olympic Association, said: “It’s changed the face of British sport.”

Mark England, our chef de mission in Rio: “We have moved from 36 in the medal table at Atlanta to No 2 now - we have never known it so good.” UK sport has really drilled into what it takes to win, and Government investment has been crucial. We have already been to Tokyo on recce missions.

Now all eyes are on Tokyo 2020 and UK sport has pledged to continue funding our elite athletes with a focus on the team sports in which we have excelled, including cycling, rowing and swimming. Mr Timson said: “The difference between us and other countries is that we take a long-term, strategic approach, thinking in eight-year cycle, so we already have athletes who have been training for years with a view to Tokyo 2020.”

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