Britain’s athletes overcame all manner of adversity, from life-changing injuries to a tyre puncture and a Covid scare, to claim two golds in Paris and ensure God Save the King was heard at an Olympics for the first time since 1948.
There were also individual silver medals on the third day of the Games for Matt Richards, 21, who lost out on the top prize by a fingertip in the men’s 200m freestyle final, and 32-year-old Adam Burgess in the men’s singles canoe.
Tom Daley and Noah Williams took silver in the 10m synchronised dive prompting Daley, who already has three bronzes and a gold to his name, to thank his husband for taking “the reins with the kids”.
“It’s just so special,” he said. “This time last year, deciding to come back, not knowing whether I would make the synchro team, let alone qualify for a spot at the Olympics, and now to be here in Paris, diving in front of my son, who is just right there and actually asked me to come back.”
In less positive news, there was also an announcement from Team GB that swimmer Adam Peaty had tested positive for Covid after just missing out on a historic third gold in as many Games in the 100m breaststroke on Sunday.
Officials said they remained optimistic Peaty, 29, would recover in time for this week’s 4x100m medley and 4x100m mixed medley as he seeks to add to his six Olympic medals but there are inevitable concerns about the health of rest of the camp.
Joy at the magic Monday medal rush, including the first golds under a King since the death of George VI, remained undiminished, with the Prince and Princess of Wales tweeting: “Huge congratulations to the Equestrian Eventing Team and Tom Pidcock in the mountain biking on winning Team GB’s first gold medals! Here’s to more success ahead!”
In the sizzling heat of the Château de Versailles, Tom McEwen, Ros Canter and Laura Collett, who nearly died when her horse fell on her in 2013 and who today has partial sight in one eye, were first to top the podium for Team GB and retain their Olympic team eventing title.
It was a record fifth team gold medal won by Great Britain in the three-day event, which includes dressage, cross-country and jumping, and Collett, riding London 52, would go on to take bronze in the individual women’s eventing.
“I never thought this day would come,” she said. “I owe absolutely everything to that horse and the team that have made it possible just to get here.”
There had been no shortage of tension at the start of the day, with Britain’s comfortable lead having been alarmingly shrunk overnight after a controversial jumping penalty against Canter, but it was Tom Pidcock and his mountain bike that delivered the most exquisite Olympic drama when securing Team GB’s first individual gold.
Pidcock, who turns 25 on Tuesday, had appeared to be losing an epic battle with France’s Victor Koretzky on the gravel of Elancourt Hill but delivered the performance of his career, clawing back from a puncture and a clumsy wheel change to snatch victory and Britain’s second gold of the day.
The race had come down to one moment when Pidcock dived to the left and Koretzky went right, and the pair almost came together, prompting some of the partisan home crowd to boo the British cyclist but his devastated French rival was magnanimous in defeat.
“There was some gravel on the track, and I took some with my front wheel and I lost a part of the gap I had on Tom,” Koretzky said. “I’m really disappointed, this mistake cost me the gold medal.”
After retaining his Olympic title, the Yorkshireman, who had been leading until he suffered a puncture, described what will go down as one of the great Olympic come backs as “the most emotionally draining victory of my career”.
He said: “It was all going pretty well and I knew that Victor would be strong and it would not be easy today and then the puncture happened. We weren’t ready in the pits but he did a fast change and I knew at that point that I had five laps and thought anything was possible. Suddenly I was coming really fast back to Victor but I couldn’t get rid of him and I knew how fast he was on the last lap.”
In the Olympics Aquatics Centre, Daley and Williams finished second behind the Chinese pair Yang Hao and Lian Junjie but the day had brought nothing but pleasure to the young father of Robbie, five, and Phoenix, one.
“Before the competition had started it felt like we had won. Just being able to be there with my family and my kids is so special,” Daley said. “They were stood right above the mixed zone when we were doing our interviews. Phoenix did throw his juice cup at me. I’ll have to give it back to him at some point. It nearly took out one of the BBC reporters. It was really nice to have him there and share that.”
The day did not go all Team GB’s way. Richards missed out on gold in the 200m freestyle by just 0.02 seconds, and a British favourite for the race, Duncan Scott, was fourth placed but just 0.08sec behind the winner, Romania’s David Popovici.
Richards said: “I can’t be too disappointed, my first ever individual [final] at an Olympic Games, to walk away with a silver medal. Obviously two one-hundredths off gold is excruciatingly frustrating but if anything it’s added more fire to my belly.”
Britain’s rugby sevens lost 17-7 to the US in the women’s quarter-finals and the Americans ended a 16-year drought in men’s gymnastics by clinching bronze in a dramatic team final. At one point the British team, who ended just outside the medals, had been in a gold medal position but it was Japan who pipped China to victory.
Max Whitlock, from the British artistic gymnastics team, said: “It was hard. I’m really gutted actually. Fourth is always difficult, we’ve come fourth quite a few times at the Olympic Games now.”
Dan Evans struggled against Stefanos Tsitsipas, losing 6-1, 6-2, in the second round of the men’s tennis singles after the extraordinary heroics on Sunday alongside Andy Murray on Sunday in the doubles. The British pair play again on Tuesday.
Evans said: “I’ll be fine. It was a quick turnaround and it was just too much today.”
Meanwhile, Rafa Nadal may have played his final game at Roland Garros after losing to Novak Djokovic 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Games. “I have been suffering a lot of injuries the last two years,” he said. “So if I feel that I am not competitive enough to keep going or physically I’m not ready to keep going, I will stop and I will let you know. But I don’t think every day about if I am retiring or not.”
