Georgia Bell has said her sensational performance in Saturday night’s 1500m was because there was “no pressure” on her coming into the Olympics.
The 30-year-old made a remarkable comeback to win bronze in Paris having quit athletics in 2017.
Bell had been a successful junior athlete, winning the English Schools 800m in 2008, but was mentally and physically unable to sustain her rise.
It was only during the pandemic that she rediscovered her enthusiasm for running and decided to get back in contact with former coach Trevor Painter – who also oversaw Keely Hodgkinson’s success in the 800m.
Despite working a full-time job in cyber security, Bell won European silver in June – beating Laura Muir to the British title and securing her Olympic debut in the city where she was born.
Bell said: “I honestly felt like it was meant to be yesterday.
“I knew it’d be so hard, but just being born in Paris, taking a huge break from running and coming back, I just felt like it was meant to be and as long as I was brave then something special would be able to happen.”
Asked if she ever thought she would make it to the podium having quit athletics, she said: “I didn’t. I honestly just thought it was completely unfinished business. I knew when I ended I hadn’t achieved my potential, but I just thought I’ve missed it now, I’ll never be able to get back to this point.
Describing her thought process during the race, Bell said: “I knew it was going to be full gas from the gun.
“We went out in a really fast first lap. I was just like, get on the train, hold on for dear life and if I was there with 100 metres to go, I knew I had a kick, so I knew I could kind of close it down.”
Looking to the future, she said her bronze will motivate her to compete in future games: “I’m technically on a sabbatical from work at the moment, so we’ll have to see how that goes, but with the World Games next year I definitely feel like there’s a lot more that we can do.
“It seems crazy to say, but the Olympics in LA will come around quickly. I think this has really given me fuel for the future.”
Great Britain’s Caden Cunningham has said he’s “hoping” his taekwondo silver medal will encourage more children to get involved with the sport.
The Huddersfield 21-year-old was forced to settle for a silver medal in the men’s +80kg category at the Paris Olympics.
Cunningham continued his remarkable trajectory by beating three world champions en route to the gold-medal match which he lost narrowly to Iran’s Arian Salimi.
Asked if his silver medal will drive enthusiasm for the sport, a buoyant Cunningham told the PA news agency: “At previous games, we’ve got all kinds of medals.
“I’m hoping with my style, my personality, I can bring more (awareness) of taekwondo. What it is, how it works, and then how you can get involved.
“Hopefully people will be seeing my face all over and go ‘okay, he’s cool. Maybe I’ll try taekwondo’.
“I think it’s an amazing sport to get kids into.”
Team GB’s synchronised swimmers have said they are “grateful” to their mums whose coaching led them to win silver in Saturday’s women’s duet.
Childhood friends Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe claimed a first artistic swimming medal for Great Britain at the Olympics, but were unable to dislodge China from top spot.
The British duo have a deep connection, forged by two of their parents competing in the duet in the 1980s as Shortman’s mother Maria swam alongside Karen Thorpe, who now coaches the children.
Shortman, 22, said: “They introduced us to the sport, took us to our first nationals, coached us through the whole way, and now they’ve seen us win an Olympic medal at our second Olympic Games.
“There’s just no better way to sum up this experience.”
Thorpe, 23, added: “We’re just so grateful for all their hard work that they’ve done with us along the years and getting us through some of those harder times.
“Obviously, it’s not always easy working with your mum when you’re a teenager, but we’ve definitely come out the other side.”
Noah Williams has said he would “choke” if he tried to repeat his bronze-medal winning dive in a future competition.
The 24-year-old snatched a bronze medal with his last two dives in a thrilling men’s 10m platform final contest on Saturday.
London-born Williams’ achievement was made all the more remarkable after only just scraping into Saturday’s showpiece following a 12th-place finish in the semi-final, where he secured his spot by 0.25 points.
Asked if his performance gives him confidence in being able to repeat it in the future, Williams said: “I don’t think so. Since I’ve done it, I’ve genuinely been thinking: if I had another opportunity to go up and do it now, would I do it again? I reckon I’d choke.
“People are like: ‘No, you didn’t get lucky. You’ve obviously worked hard for it’, and I know I have, but for it to come together in that moment I’m sure there’s a slight bit of luck. I don’t know if I could do that again.”
