Paris says au revoir in style after a sublime Games for GB and the world

The Paris Games concluded with a joyous au revoir in the Stade de France and an Olympic medal haul for Great Britain that was only bettered by the sporting superpowers of the US and China after 16 days of sublime athleticism.

- Daniel Boffey

As the Olympic baton was handed to Los Angeles 2028 at a spectacular closing ceremony, Andy Anson, the chief executive of the British Olympic Association, admitted to frustration that a relative scarcity of golds had left Team GB at seventh on the official medal table, its lowest position since Athens in 2004.

Gold medals are key in the official table and with only 14 of them, compared with 22 in Tokyo and 27 in Rio in 2016, Team GB was only the thirdhighest ranking European nation behind fifth placed hosts France (16 golds) and the Netherlands (15 golds) in sixth.

Anson admitted it was something over which to mull but with 65 medals in 18 sporting disciplines unmatched by any other country but the top two the tally remained an improvement by one compared with three years ago and equal to that of London 2012.

"It's frustrating to be seventh in the medal table, but we've got to celebrate first the number of fantastic moments, the way athletes have won their medals," Anson said. "It's about this continual fine tuning, figuring out what can be done better to move forward. The middle bit of the medal table below the United States and China feels incredibly competitive."

There had been a return to form in Paris in some traditionally strong disciplines such as rowing and new ground was made with Ellie Aldridge, 27, becoming the first Olympic gold medallist in kitesurfing.

Kate Shortman, 22, and Izzy Thorpe, 23, won Britain's first-ever Olympic medal in artistic swimming and Toby Roberts, 19, became the first medallist for Team GB in sport climbing, winning gold in the boulder and lead combined.

"When you win in 18 sports, something has gone right," Anson said. "The breadth of success is incredibly important in terms of the resonance it has around the country and the impact it has on communities and getting people back into sports.