Great Britain's Olympic medal performance in 2008 was its best in a century; at the close of the Games, the overall medal count of 47 was the second highest ever achieved by Team GB. The total number of gold medals was the highest since the 1908 Summer Olympics, which Britain hosted in London. Following the retesting of samples in 2016 in connection with the Russian doping scandal, disqualifications led to four further bronze medals being awarded to Great Britain in athletics: both the men's and women's 4 × 400 metres relay teams were officially upgraded to bronze; Kelly Sotherton received her second reallocated bronze medal, in the women's heptathlon event (having also been part of the women's relay team); and Goldie Sayers was awarded the bronze medal for the women's javelin throw event. These four additional medals retrospectively increased Team GB's total medal count to 51.
Great Britain finished fourth overall in the Olympic medal table, a target that had previously been set by UK Sport (the public body responsible for distributing funding to elite sport) for the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was hosted by the UK in London; after Team GB's success in 2008, UK Sport considered whether to target third place for 2012.[7] Team GB finished top of the medal tables in cycling, sailing and rowing, and third in swimming. The highest number of medals was won in cycling, with a total of 14, eight of which were gold. Britain also won gold medals in sailing, rowing, swimming, athletics, canoeing and boxing. There were several outstanding individual achievements: cyclist Chris Hoy was the first Briton in 100 years to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games; Rebecca Adlington's double Olympic gold was the best performance by a British swimmer for a century; Ben Ainslie won a gold medal for the third successive Games to become the most decorated British Olympic sailor of all time; Rebecca Romero became the first British woman to win a medal in two different Olympic sports, winning a rowing silver in 2004 and a cycling gold in 2008; and Louis Smith was the first Briton to win an individual gymnastics medal since 1908.
At the close of the Games, Great Britain had won a total of 47 medals, 19 of which were gold.[11] This was the second highest medal haul ever achieved by Team GB and the highest in a century,[12] representing the team's best Olympic performance since the 1908 Summer Olympics, which Britain hosted in London.[13] Great Britain finished fourth overall in the Olympics medal table, behind China, United States and Russia.[11][13]
The following British competitors won medals at the Games (in August 2008).[14] Note that the names of the Team GB medallists are shown in bold in the results tables given for each discipline in the sections below.
* The original bronze medal count for Team GB was 15.[11][19] Between July 2017 and July 2019, four bronze medals were awarded retrospectively in Athletics (see medal table left), bringing the total up to 19.[20]
Multiple medallists
The following British competitors won multiple medals at the 2008 Olympic Games.
UK Sport, which distributes National Lottery funding to elite sport, published its expectations for the Beijing Olympics in June 2008. The target medal count was set at 41 "potential" medals, with 35 of those identified as "expected" to be won, including 10 to 12 gold medals. Team GB's overall objective was to finish eighth in the medal table.[21]
The gold medal expectation was exceeded on 19August when Paul Goodison earned Britain's 13th gold medal in the men's Laser class sailing event. The expectation of 35 medals was passed on 20August when Team GB claimed their 36th medal– a bronze in the women's RS:X sailing event, won by Bryony Shaw. The overall medal target of 41 was achieved when canoeist Tim Brabants took gold in the men's 1000mK-1 canoeing event, claiming Britain's 41st physical medal (three further medals were guaranteed in boxing at the time),[22] and the target was exceeded when Heather Fell secured the 42nd medal, a silver, in the women's modern pentathlon.[23]
Not all of the medals claimed had been identified and included in the target medal count; although Team GB fell short of targets in some disciplines, they exceeded targets in others. For example, the cycling target of six medals was met twice over on 19August when Victoria Pendleton won Britain's 12th cycling medal, a gold in the women's sprint event.[24] A further two medals were already guaranteed at this stage in the men's individual sprint: Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny subsequently won gold and silver, respectively.[25] Altogether, Team GB won seven of the ten gold medals available in the track cycling events at the velodrome.[26] The swimmers also doubled their targeted medal count when David Davies won the team's sixth swimming medal– a silver in the men's 10km open water marathon on 21August.[27] Despite the men's and women's archery teams having placed second and third, respectively, at the 2007 world championships,[28] the British archers won neither of their targeted medals, leading to criticism of the tactics used by head coach Peter Suk from members of the team.[29][30]
At the 2007 World Outdoor Target Championships, Great Britain's men's team placed second and its women's team placed third.[28] This qualified the nation to send the maximum quota of three men and three women to the 2008 Olympics.[31]
The initial squad was selected for the British team on 14 July; however, the final team was not confirmed until the outcome of a court case involving Dwain Chambers.[33] Under BOA rules, Chambers had been banned from future Games after testing positive for the steroid THG in 2003; his appeal to overturn the ban (on the grounds that it was an unfair "restraint of trade") failed, and he was omitted from the squad.[34] The athletics team included former Olympic medal winners Marlon Devonish and Kelly Sotherton, as well as former Olympic individual finalists Joanne Pavey, Paula Radcliffe, Helen Clitheroe and Tasha Danvers. Women's marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe faced a battle to be fit for the Games because of a stress fracture in her left thigh.[35] She was eventually fit enough to start the race but struggled to complete the distance and finished in 23rd position.[36]
Team GB won four medals in athletics: one gold, two silver and one bronze. UK Athletics performance director Dave Collins was forced to stand down from his post after the Games, due in part to the team's failure to meet the UK Sport target of winning five medals.[37][21][38] Subsequently, a series of retests ordered in the wake of the Russian doping scandal in 2015 and 2016 found that Britain had been deprived of medals in a further four events by athletes later confirmed to have committed doping violations at the 2008 Games. In September 2016, javelin thrower Goldie Sayers and the entire Men's 4 × 400 metres relay team were upgraded to bronze after confirmation that their Russian rivals had been retrospectively stripped of their medals for failing retests for banned substances.[39][40] Two further disqualifications resulting from the retest of doping samples led to the Women's 4 × 400 metres relay team being upgraded from fifth place to bronze medal position.[41] In September 2018, Kelly Sotherton was awarded a retrospective individual bronze medal in the women's heptathlon (her second reallocated bronze, as she was also part of the upgraded relay team)[42]—having originally placed fifth, she had been promoted to fourth position a few days after the event when Ukraine's Liudmyla Blonska was immediately stripped of her silver medal for failing a drugs test.[43]
Key
Note: Ranks given for track events are in the athlete's heat only.
Q = Qualified for the next round
q = Qualified for the next round as a fastest loser or, in field events, by position without achieving the qualifying target
* The athlete who finished in second place, Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine, failed an initial drugs test immediately after the event.[47] She was stripped of her silver medal on 22August 2008 when both her A and B samples tested positive for a banned substance,[43] and both British heptathletes were moved up a position.
Six British badminton players went to the Games,[48] competing in four of the five badminton events. They did not win any medals, thus failing to reach the one medal target set by UK Sport.[21] The mixed doubles pairing of Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson, who won silver in the 2004 tournament, progressed furthest amongst the British athletes, reaching the quarterfinals.[49]
Seven competitors joined Team GB for the canoeing events, with three in the slalom and four in the flatwater sprint. Anna Hemmings and Jessica Walker, in the K-2 kayaking pairs, were a late addition to the team after qualification complications with the Spanish team.[56] Three medals were won, exceeding the target of two set by UK Sport.[21] Two of the medals were won by sprint kayaker Tim Brabants, who had previously won a bronze at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.[21]
In the debut appearance of BMX events at the Olympics, world champion Shanaze Reade finished out of the medals after crashing out of the women's final.[66] Reade had been unbeaten all year and was the favourite to win the women's title.[67]
Great Britain was represented by 14 track cyclists, 13 of whom won at least one medal. Seven of the ten gold medals available in the track cycling discipline went to Team GB.[26]
Team GB entered a total of ten divers (five men and five women) into the individual and synchronised diving events.[70] The diving team included 14-year-old Tom Daley, the 2008 European Men's 10-metre platform champion and one of the youngest athletes ever to compete for Great Britain at the Summer Olympics.[71]
Twelve entrants competed for Team GB in the three equestrian disciplines, which took place in Hong Kong.[72]Zara Phillips, the reigning world eventing champion and granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, was originally included in the squad but had to withdraw when her horse Toytown sustained an injury during training; Phillips missed out on her second successive Olympics, having withdrawn from the 2004 Games for the same reason.[73]
(Total scores are the average of qualifying round 2 and freestyle final for the individual competition, and average of individual round 1 scores for the team competition.)
* Reserve rider Nick Skelton was added to the show jumping team event as a substitute for Michael Whitaker who had withdrawn from the competition.[76]
** On 21 August, four horses from Brazil, Germany, Ireland and Norway tested positive for a banned substance.[77] The riders were subsequently disqualified from the individual competition and if the B samples test positive then Brazil, Germany and Norway will be disqualified from the team competition and Great Britain will move into 5th place.
Great Britain qualified three fencers for the individual fencing events. Cambridge University student Alex O'Connell was the only fencer included in the original allocation for Team GB announced in May 2008.[78][79] The other two British fencers were added through the re-allocation of places by the FIE (the governing body for Olympic fencing) following the withdrawal of entrants from other NOCs.[80][81]
The Great Britain men's team qualified for the men's Olympic field hockey tournament after a must-win game against India in the final of the Olympic qualifying event.[82] Great Britain was drawn in GroupB of the Olympic tournament based on the FIH Men's World Rankings on 17April 2008.[83] Having finished third in their group, the team went on to finish fifth overall, beating South Korea in the 5th/6th place classification match.[84]Matt Daly was the team's top scorer in the tournament, with three goals.[85]
Team roster
The following is the British roster in the men's field hockey tournament of the 2008 Summer Olympics.[86]
The result of the uneven bars final, in which Britain's Beth Tweddle placed 4th, was called into question after documents were found that seemed to say that Chinese gymnasts He Kexin and Yang Yilin were only 14, and therefore under the age required to compete, at the time of the Games. An investigation into their ages was launched by the IOC to determine whether it was necessary to disqualify them, thus Tweddle's standing could have been changed to 2nd, giving her a silver medal.[100] After a five-and-a-half-week investigation the Chinese athletes were cleared and the original results allowed to stand.[101]
Team GB was represented in the judo events by seven judoka (four men and three women),[103] including the 2005 world champion Craig Fallon.[104] None of the British entrants made it past the quarterfinal stages of the competition or through to the medal match of the repechage, so the team failed to meet the two-medal target set by UK Sport.[21]
Team GB sent the maximum allowance of four competitors for the modern pentathlon events in Beijing. For the first time since 1996, the team had entrants in the men's competition.[105]
Qualification Legend: FA=Final A (medal); FB=Final B (non-medal); FC=Final C (non-medal); FD=Final D (non-medal); FE=Final E (non-medal); FF=Final F (non-medal); SA/B=Semifinals A/B; SC/D=Semifinals C/D; SE/F=Semifinals E/F; QF=Quarterfinals; R=Repechage
Great Britain entered crews in all 11 sailing events at the Games.[1][113] The team finished top of the sailing medal table, with six medals won,[114] thus exceeding the target of four set by UK Sport.[21]Ben Ainslie won a gold medal for the third successive Games to become the most decorated British Olympic sailor of all time.[115]
Great Britain qualified five entrants for the shooting competition, four in the shotgun events and one in the rifle events. Olympic gold medallist Richard Faulds, who won the Men's double trap in 2000, progressed furthest amongst the British competitors, finishing in sixth place.[116][117]
Thirty-seven athletes represented Team GB in the swimming events. Selection followed the 2008 British Olympic Swimming Trials in Sheffield in April, with open water event swimmers selected after performance in the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships, in Seville, Spain. In winning six medals (two gold, two silver and two bronze) the team bettered the target of three medals set by UK Sport.[21]Rebecca Adlington was the most successful swimmer, winning two gold medals.[118] Her 400m freestyle success was Britain's first Olympic swimming title since 1988, and the first swimming gold by a British woman since 1960. Her second gold, in the 800m freestyle, meant she also equalled the best performance by a British woman, from any sport, at the summer Olympics and was the best swimming performance by a Briton at the Olympics for 100 years.[119]
Qualifiers for the latter rounds (Q) of all events were decided on a time only basis, therefore positions shown are overall results versus competitors in all heats.
Qualifiers for the latter rounds (Q) of all events were decided on a time only basis, therefore positions shown are overall results versus competitors in all heats.
Team GB was represented by two artistic swimmers, Olivia Allison and Jenna Randall, who placed 14th in the women's duet event. This was the first time since 1992 that Britain had taken part in the synchronised swimming competition at the Olympics.[121]
Team GB entered three athletes into the taekwondo competition. Sarah Stevenson won Team GB's first-ever medal in Olympic taekwondo – a bronze in the women's +67kg category.[122] Another British hopeful, Aaron Cook, missed out on bronze in the men's −80kg, which led to his coach publicly criticising the referee's decisions.[123]
* After a successful appeal by the British team, the result of Stevenson's quarterfinal match was reversed, granting her two points for a final-round kick to Chen's head which the judges had previously missed. The reversal of the decision, after video footage was considered, is thought to be a first for the sport.[124]
Great Britain was represented in the tennis competition by brothers Andy and Jamie Murray. In the first round of the singles tournament, Andy was defeated in straight sets by Chinese Taipei's Lu Yen-hsun.[125][126] The Murray brothers were later eliminated in the second round of the men's doubles tournament.[127]
Five competitors were selected to represent Team GB in the triathlon, with three in the men's event and two in the women's.[128] The best result was recorded by Alistair Brownlee, who finished in 12th place.[129][130]
The only British weightlifter to qualify for the Games was Michaela Breeze who was competing in her second Olympics.[131] She battled through a back injury, sustained less than a month before the Games,[132] and finished 15th out of 20 competitors in her event.[133]
There was no Team GB representation at the 2008 Olympics in baseball, basketball, football, handball, softball, table tennis, volleyball and wrestling. British athletes took part in the qualifying competitions for some of these sports in the lead up to the Games, but they either failed to qualify or were unable to participate for other reasons.[134]
The award of the 2012 Summer Olympics to London has brought the question of British participation in the football tournaments to the fore, given that there is traditionally no single United Kingdom national team. The British Olympic Association initially refused to rule out the possibility of entry for 2008, but were unable to come to an agreement with the Scottish Football Association.[137] The 2007 European Under-21 Championship, which served as the European qualifying tournament for the men's competition, saw the England U21 team reach the semi-finals, which would have meant a place at the Olympics. Because at the Olympics the team is representative of the entire UK, England were thus prevented from taking this place, with instead a play-off taking place between Portugal and Italy.[citation needed] A similar situation occurred with the England women's team who would have been granted a place at the 2008 Olympics by virtue of being one of the top three European sides at the 2007 World Cup, but their Olympic qualification was disallowed by FIFA.[138] Instead, there was a play-off between Denmark and Sweden to claim the vacant Olympic qualifying position left by England.[139]
For the first time, Olympic coverage was broadcast in high definition on the BBC HD channel.[143]Digital TV viewers had access to up to six streamed channels covering the Games on BBC Red Button, whilst the BBC's website permitted British broadband users to view live streams from a variety of events.[144] Live broadcasts ran overnight and throughout the day on BBC One and BBC Two, starting at 02:00 daily; a highlights programme, The Games Today,[145] was broadcast on BBC One following the close of each day's events.[146]
Eurosport provided continuous pay-TV coverage of the 2008 Games across its territories, viewable in the UK to Sky TV subscribers, including 15hours a day of live broadcasting between 03:00 and 18:00.[148] The coverage was also available in high definition on Eurosport's new HD channel (first launched in July 2008) to the thousands of Sky+ HD subscribers across the UK.[149] Eurosport's Olympic broadcast sponsor for 2008 was the sportswear brand Asics.[150]
↑ "Team GB". British Olympic Association. Archived from the original on 8 August 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
↑ "British Olympic Association". UK Sport. Archived from the original on 15 March 2025. Retrieved 21 May 2025. Great Britain is one of only five countries to have been represented at each summer Olympic Games since 1896
↑ "2008 Summer Olympics, Hockey, Men". Olympedia.org. Archived from the original on 14 February 2025. Retrieved 21 May 2025. See Group B: Match#1, Match#6, Match#9, Match#10, Match#15.
↑ "And so it begins". BritishRowing.org. 7 August 2008. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
↑ "Olympic Games". BritishRowing.org. Archived from the original on 5 December 2024. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
↑ "Medal Standings Rowing". Beijing 2008 official website. 17 August 2008. Archived from the original on 21 September 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
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