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Great Britain today won their 1,000th medal across summer and winter Olympics, according to the statistician Bill Mallon.Ethan Hayter, Dan Bigham, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon and Ollie Wood reached the milestone in the velodrome with their silver medal in the men’s team pursuit at the Paris Olympics.Mallon is a leading historian on the history of the Olympics and a consultant statistician to the International Olympic Committee.Here is a look at some of the medal winners over the years.
BLINGIEST
The most successful British Olympian by gold medals and total medals won is Sir Jason Kenny, who won seven gold medals and nine overall in track cycling.
FIRST
Launceston Elliot became Britain’s first Olympic champion when he won the one-handed lift in weightlifting at the 1896 Games in Athens. On the same day, April 7, Elliot also finished second in the two-handed lift with Charles Gmelin third in the 400 metres.
FIRST WOMAN
The distinction of being the first woman ever to become an individual Olympic champion goes to the 29-year-old Charlotte Cooper of Ealing who won the women’s singles at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris. Cooper defeated the French champion, Helene Prevost in straight sets and then won a second gold medal in the mixed doubles with Reggie Doherty.
OLDEST
Shooter Jerry Millner won gold in the free rifle at 1,000 yards in the 1908 Olympics in London, aged 61.His background in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps – Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Kearney Miller, to give him his full title – no doubt set him up for success.
YOUNGEST
Sky Brown became Great Britain’s youngest medallist when she claimed a bronze in the women’s park skateboarding event in Tokyo at the age of 13, eclipsing figure skater Cecilia Colledge, who was 15 when she won a silver medal at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games. Brown repeated her third place in Paris, aged 16.
ANOTHER FIRST
Harry Edward became Britain’s first black Olympian at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, where he won bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m. Berlin-born, with British nationality through his father from the then British colony of Dominica, he was held as a prisoner of war before being transported to Edinburgh and then London once the first World War was over – qualifying for the Olympics through the national trials while running for Polytechnic Harriers. He was later a humanitarian aid worker for the United Nations and the International Refugee Organisation.
UNLUCKIEST
Lutalo Muhammad missed out on a gold medal by a single second in a dramatic men’s taekwondo final in Rio in 2016. Muhammad held a one-point lead over Cheick Sallah Cisse of the Ivory Coast heading into the final stages of their final before his opponent landed a swinging head kick worth two points with just one second left on the clock.
COOLEST
Ethel Muckelt, from Moss Side in Manchester, won Great Britain’s first medal at a Winter Olympics when she took bronze in the women’s figure skating at the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924. But Muckelt was not the first British figure skater to win an Olympic medal – GB won figure skating medals in both 1908 and 1924, when it was part of the summer programme.
SNOWIEST
When Jenny Jones won a bronze medal in the women’s snowboard slopestyle event at the 2014 Games in Sochi, she became the first British athlete to win a Winter Olympic medal on snow. Four years later, Izzy Atkin finished third in the women’s ski slopestyle to become the first Briton to win an Olympic medal on skis.
MOST CONTROVERSIAL
Two medals are missing from this list. The silver won by the men’s 4×100 metres relay team in Tokyo, which was stripped after CJ Ujah failed a drugs test and the bronze won by Alain Baxter in the men’s slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which was taken away after he tested positive for a banned substance contained in a nasal decongestant.
