A “freak crash” dashed Geraint Thomas’s hopes of a cycling road race medal on day one of this year’s delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Day two saw Jade Jones’s shock exit from the Taekwondo.
In the end, it was a Judo bronze for 24-year-old Chelsie Giles, making her Olympic debut, which became Team GB’s first medal of the games.
Since then, the medal tally has been increasing rapidly. A huge congratulations to – among others – Tom Pidcock (mountain biking), Adam Peaty and Tom Dean (swimming), and Tom Daley and Matty Lee (diving), all of whom have won golds.
And congratulations too, to Lauren Taylor (Taekwondo) and Georgia Taylor-Brown (triathlon) for their silver medals.
Here are some more Britons hoping for medal glory over the next two weeks.
1. Dina Asher-Smith, athletics
Dina Asher-Smith is the fastest British woman on record and is one of the favourites for a medal in both the 100m and 200m.
She won three golds in the European Championships back in 2018 (including the 4x100m relay). In 2019, she followed that success with a 200m gold and a 100m silver at the World Championships.
Tokyo marks only her second trip to an Olympic Games but she has already been named Team GB’s athletics captain.
Of her own chances, she told the Guardian recently, “In the 100m you get 10 seconds in a heat, 10 seconds in a semi-final, 10 seconds in a final. 30 seconds total to make your mark.”
2. Laura Kenny, cycling
Laura Kenny has four Olympic gold medals under her belt already. She won double gold in the team pursuit and omnium in Rio and London.
While rower and current chair of UK Sport, Dame Katherine Grainger holds the current record for medals won at consecutive games – with five – Kenny could become the first British woman to win gold at three successive Olympics.
She is in good form too, winning omnium silver at the European Championships last November.
Kenny’s Olympic campaign begins in week two, with the team pursuit qualifiers on 2 August and the Madison final on 6 August. She will be defending her Olympic omnium title in the early hours (BST) of 8 August.
3. Jason Kenny, cycling
Tokyo 2020 is the fourth Olympics for Jason Kenny (husband of fellow Olympic cyclist Laura).
While Bradley Wiggins currently holds the record for the highest medal tally (with a total of eight), Jason Kenny has the joint highest number of golds, sharing the accolade with fellow cyclist Sir Chris Hoy.
A win in Tokyo would give Kenny his seventh gold medal.
Kenny will be competing in the men’s team sprint, the individual sprint, and the keirin.
4. Charlotte Worthington, BMX freestyle
Tokyo 2020 marks the debut of BMX freestyle as an Olympic event and Britain’s Charlotte Worthington is in with a shot at a medal.
Having only taken up the sport at age 20, Worthington won gold at the British and European titles before taking home a bronze medal at the World Championships.
American Hannah Roberts may be the favourite, but Worthington is likely to be in contention.
5. Katarina Johnson-Thompson, athletics
Johnson-Thompson made her Olympic debut in the heptathlon at London 2012. She finished in 13th place while fellow Team GB member Jessica Ennis-Hill took gold. Ennis-Hill achieved silver four years later, in Rio, while Johnson-Thompson improved, moving up to sixth.
While Ennis-Hill retired in 2016, Johnson-Thompson went on to win the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2019 World Athletics Championship titles.
Following the challenges of 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic, she suffered an injury too, rupturing the Achilles tendon of her take-off foot in December. After a difficult year, Johnson-Thompson might not come into the event as the favourite, but neither should she be underestimated.
6. Tom Daley, diving
Having already picked up his first gold medal in the 10m synchronised diving with partner Matty Lee, Daley will be looking to reach the same heights when he performs solo.
Daley made his Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008, at the age of just 14. Tokyo is his fourth Olympic Games and will see him look to improve on the individual bronze medal he received in London. Daley is in good form too, winning the individual world title.
After the uncertainty and delays surrounding the 2020 games, Daley still has a little longer to wait. The individual 10m platform is the last diving event of Tokyo 2020 and the preliminary rounds begin on 6 August with the semi-finals and final both held on the following day.
7. Sky Brown, park skateboarding
Sky Brown is Great Britain’s youngest ever Summer Olympian, having only just turned 13 and is a month younger than our previous youngest entrant, swimmer Margery Hinton, who competed at the 1928 games.
Brown competes in the Women’s Park skateboarding event which is scheduled to begin on 4 August.
While the medals have already been decided in the Street event – characterised by its “street-like” course of stairs and handrails – the Park event generally sees greater speed, more air, and a greater chance for mid-air tricks.
Brown has every chance of winning a medal, having been awarded bronze at the World Championships in Sao Paolo in 2019.
ParalympicsGB hopefuls
The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics begins on 24 August and ParalympicsGB will be hoping for medals here too. Here are a couple of big names to watch out for.
8. Emma Wiggs MBE, kayaking
Emma Wiggs made her Paralympic debut at London 2021 in the GB Sitting Volleyball Team before making the move to canoeing.
She won gold in the KL2 200m event at Rio in 2016 and will defend her title in Tokyo. She will also compete in the VL2 va’a (a type of rudderless outrigger canoe), an event that makes its debut at Tokyo 2020.
Para-canoe debuted at the Rio Games and ParalympicsGB topped the medal table in the sport that year, so will expect big things from its athletes this time around.
9. Chris Skelley, judo
Chris Skelley was the 2017 European champion in visually impaired Judo and is set to head to Tokyo as number one in the world.
He is one of four judoka that will represent ParalympicsGB and could be the one with the best shot at a medal. The Judo competition is scheduled to begin on 27 August.
