Team GB Rank 7th In 2006 Relative Olympic Summer Medal Table
20 Feb 2007
British Olympic performances in 2006 across the 26 Summer Olympic sports on the programme for the London 2012 Olympic Games put Team GB seventh in the summer medal table.
Eight of these sports (archery, badminton, equestrian, gymnastics, judo, rowing, triathlon and sailing) now see Britain ranked in the world’s top ten.
Further information on the performance of Team GB athletes in 2006 across the 35 Olympic sports, both summer and winter, is outlined in ‘Team GB 2006: Countdown to 2012’, which is published today by the British Olympic Association (BOA). This is the second in a series of annual publications charting the progress of Team GB in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Team GB now boasts nine world champions across seven Summer Olympic sports.
- Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson took the badminton World doubles title in Madrid in September beating their British team mates Donna Kellogg and Anthony Clark in the final;
- In August, Zara Phillips became only the third rider in history to win back to back European and World titles by adding World Championship gold in Aachen to her 2005 European triumph;
- In October, Beth Tweddle became Britain’s first ever World Artistic Gymnastic Champion with victory on the asymmetric bars in Denmark;
- In May, Judo’s Craig Fallon became Britain’s first male European Judo Champion in a decade and only the second British Athlete ever to hold both the World and European titles;
- The men’s four (Steve Williams, Peter Reed, Alex Partridge and Andy Triggs-Hodge) retained their World Rowing Championship crown at Eton – part of an amazing sequence of 24 consecutive victories over the past two seasons. The women’s quad (Debbie Flood, Sarah Winkless, Frances Houghton and Katherine Grainger) were also crowned World Champions following the Eton event;
- In sailing Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks took top honours with a gold medal at the 2006 49er World Championships and Nic Asher and Elliot Willis won the 470 title; and finally
- Tim Don became the World Triathlon Champion in Lausanne, Switzerland in September – an event that also saw British athletes scoop the men’s under-23 and junior titles.
Encouragingly, thirteen different sports – as opposed to nine in 2005 – contributed to Team GB’s final position in the medal table.
At the Olympic Winter Games in Turin the young and talented team put in a number of promising performances, culminating in an excellent silver medal for Shelley Rudman in the skeleton. This was followed by Curling World Championship gold for the Scottish men’s team in April 2006.
BOA Chairman, Colin Moynihan said:
“The last twelve months have seen important developments which will have a major impact on British Olympic sport, including the Chancellor’s announcement to double Government and National Lottery support by providing an additional £300 million Exchequer, National Lottery and sponsorship funding to support our Olympic athletes.
“The BOA has also stepped up to the challenge and embarked on some significant changes in 2006. Clive Woodward joined the BOA as Director of Elite Performance in September and is working with the Performance Directors of each Olympic sport, complementing the contribution made by UK Sport. Furthermore, we have established the FTSE-BOA Initiative which partners each Olympic sport with a leading British company to help those sports further develop good business practice.”
BOA Chief Executive, Simon Clegg commented:
“The results across our Olympic sports in 2006 show that Team GB success is being built across a broad range of sports – with many sports medalling for the first time or for the first time in a number of years. Our position of seventh place in the overall summer medal table is based upon the current performance of athletes at senior level and takes no account of the performances of our young aspiring Olympians who will form the core of Team GB in 2012, where it is the BOA’s aspiration to finish fourth in the medal table.
“At the recent Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) a team of 106 of our finest young athletes secured an impressive 48 medals, including 14 Gold. Our athletes achieved a position on the medal podium in all ten summer Olympic sports in which we competed. This shows the depth and quality of talent that exists in this age group.”
Notes to Editors:
- Team GB came 10th in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games medal table;
- The Chancellor announced an extra £300 million for Olympic Sport in his budget speech on 22nd March 2006;
- Clive Woodward was appointed the BOA’s Director of Elite Performance on 6th September 2006;
- Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF): 2,200 athletes representing 23 nations (including China, United States, Australia and South Africa) competed at the fourth AYOF in Sydney on 17th-21st January 2007. The BOA, with support from Visa, sent a team of 106 athletes aged 12-19 to participate in 11 Olympic disciplines, picking up a total of 48 medals, including 14 gold. It was Team GB’s inaugural appearance at the AYOF;
- FTSE–British Olympic Association Initiative: Launched at the London Stock Exchange on 14th February 2007, this initiative partners FTSE 100 companies with the National Governing Bodies of Olympic Sports to help transfer skills and knowledge to accelerate each sport governing body’s organisational development and governance structures;
- ‘Team GB 2006: Countdown to 2012’ analyses the 2006 performances of our 35 Olympic sports and collates the statistical information into a ‘Relative Olympic Medal Table’ (separate summer and winter tables). Results are based on Olympic disciplines only and are collated from relevant world level competition in 2006. For sports in which no appropriate World Championships took place in 2006, official world rankings were used, or where these do not exist, a copy of the results of the most recent previous World Championships were used;
- Copies of the publication ‘Team GB 2006: Countdown to 2012’ can be downloaded by clicking here for section 1 and here for section 2 .
- For further information, please contact Phil Wilkinson in the BOA Media Office on 0208 871 2677 extension 233.