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
FIRST
Launceston Elliot, “an exceptionally well-built youth”, and the most handsome man of the 1896 Olympics, would have listened to the Olympipod.
And he’d have enjoyed it somewhat.
listen now: https://t.co/QVr95GMtZT pic.twitter.com/D33gwM1PwM
— Olympipod Podcast (@olympipod) July 23, 2020
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
Woman of the Day Charlotte Cooper Sterry (1870-1966) of London became the first female Olympic champion and the first individual female Olympic champion in any sport OTD in 1900 at the Paris Olympics. It wasn’t the only record she set.
Charlotte was winner of the Wimbledon… pic.twitter.com/mWmEKVkkR3
— The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) July 11, 2024
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
YOUNGEST
ANOTHER FIRST
In his lost memoir, WHEN I PASSED THE STATUE OF LIBERTY I BECAME BLACK, Britain’s first Black Olympic medal winner, Harry Edward, details his experience of competing in the 1920 Olympics.
An extract is now on our blog: https://t.co/Cq1dLy5rFS#Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/IspZMn7ABE
— Yale University Press London? (@YaleBooks) August 2, 2024
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
COOLEST
Ethel Muckelt (1885-1953) Figure skater. In 1924 won bronze at the Winter Olympics and silver at the World Figure Skating Championships in the women’s singles event. Aged 38 at the time, she was one of the oldest Olympic competitors. She continued competing into her fifties. pic.twitter.com/eyljyErg00
— Woman’s Place UK (@Womans_Place_UK) February 15, 2022
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
MOST CONTROVERSIAL
