World Athletics president Sebastian Coe speaks on the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif during the Paris Games. (2:02)
PARIS — Georgia Bell felt the joy emanating inside her as she stood on the podium at the Stade de France. First she drooped her head for an IOC member to give her the medal, then she stood and watched as the Union Jack was raised above the track. It capped an amazing night in Bell’s life. The most amazing night of Bell’s life. Speaking to reporters minutes after her 1,500-metre women’s final, she said she didn’t know if she had “ever been this happy.”
It never mattered that the British flag was raised just slightly below those of Australia and Kenya. It never mattered that she stood on the podium just slightly below Jessica Hull and even further below new Olympic record holder Faith Kipyegon.
To Bell, a cyber security specialist who took the summer off work to be here in Paris, it never mattered that her medal shined in bronze rather than in gold. She was just happy to be in that moment.
That spirit sums up Team GB at these Games. The reflecting view of Paris 2024 from a British perspective can be mixed. One on hand, it delivered the fewest number of golds (14) since Athens 2004, and will be remembered more for the images of Snoop Dogg fencing and Simone Biles flipping than those of London 2012’s Super Saturday.
Through a different lens, it was yet another success. It delivered a total of 65 medals — one more than Tokyo 2020 and enough to equal London 2012.
It saw Alex Yee snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat, rounding off a 51.5 kilometre-long race by surpassing New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde with 100 metres to go. It saw Tom Pidcock do the same in the mountain bike cross-country as he bounced back after suffering a tyre puncture to beat France’s Victor Koretzky. It saw track cyclist Emma Finucane win gold at her debut Games in the women’s team sprint, and then proceed to sleep with the medal under her pillow. She put the bronze medal she won days later under there too, and will do the same with the other bronze she won on Sunday.
It didn’t matter too much to Finucane that those last two medals weren’t gold. She treasured them all the same. “I’ve been looking every morning,” she said, motioning the lifting of her pillow with her hands. “Yep, they’re still there.”
In the same way, it didn’t ruin Andy Murray’s fortnight that he didn’t end his career with a gold medal. Nor any medal. He spent his time hanging out with the other British tennis players and collecting more Olympic pins than surely anyone else in the village. He had 70 and counting by the time he exited from Roland Garros last week. There’s no telling how many he must have now.
There were moments that bore a silver rather than gold. Adam Peaty returned to the pool after a personally difficult 14 months, and he hugged his son tight after being pipped at the line by Italy’s Nicolò Martinenghi. He would have loved to have won gold, and he still loved that he medalled. But it meant something more to him that he was there in the first place.
“It doesn’t matter what the time says on the board,” Peaty said after the race. “I know that in my heart I’ve already won.”
UK Sport aimed for between 50 and 70 medals from these Games — they don’t specify colours anymore because they know it only adds pressure to athletes, and they also know how marginal the differences are.
What the body looks for most are moments. Medals are for athletes, it’s moments that belong to everyone who watched. UK sport hopes they inspire the British crowd to be more active and increase participation at grassroots level.
“Our athletes have inspired us and made the nation proud and while the sport is over, for now, I’m excited to see many of the Olympic class of 2024 return home and use their platform to make a positive impact in society,” UK Sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger said.
It’s why Bell’s story, and her undulated joy at the end, signifies the point of these Games. She left track and field seven years ago amid injury and a sudden lack of love for the sport. So she lived a normal life: She got a job in cyber security and watched the last Olympics on the sofa. “Like everyone else,” Bell said.
It was a “Parkrun” event in Bushy Park in Teddington, London that relit the fire and made her wonder if she could compete again. Her former coach, Trevor Painter, who also coaches Keely Hodgkinson, took her back on. We now know that journey would end in a bronze medal and joy on the podium as the British flag lifted.
More than that, though, all of it led to running and sport being back in Bell’s life. Even after she competed and that moment was over, she said that was the biggest prize of all.
“I am so happy I came back to this sport,” Bell said. “Mainly, I’m happy with what running has given me. Obviously it’s amazing to be at the Olympics but when I took up running again, the goal wasn’t to make the Olympics, that would have been absolutely bonkers at the time, it was coming back to something that I really loved.”