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Olympics: Team GB’s Most Decorated Male Olympians

Paris will host the 33rd Summer Olympics this summer, with Team GB hoping to have another successful Games.

Great Britain won 64 medals in Tokyo four years ago, including 22 gold medals, to see them finish fourth in the overall medal table.

In this article, we look at the five most successful British male Olympians of the modern era and reflect on those who have stood proud at the top of the podium.

No.1 - Sir Jason Kenny

Track Cycling

Seven Gold Medals
Two Silver Medals

The most successful Team GB male of all time is track cyclist Jason Kenny, who competed in four Olympics – starting in Beijing in 2008.

The Bolton cyclist won his first gold medal in China after being part of the victorious Team Sprint trio.

At his home Games in London, Kenny collected two more golds, with success in the Sprint and Team Sprint.

His most successful Olympics came in Rio in 2016, with the then 28-year-old winning a hat-trick of golds in Brazil, crossing the line first in the Team Sprint, Sprint and Keirin.

Another victory, in the Keirin, in Tokyo took his number of golds to seven, and when adding in his two silvers, his overall tally amounts to nine medals.

No.2 - Sir Chris Hoy

Track Cycling

Six Gold Medals
One Silver Medal

Another cycling Sir sits second on the list, with Chris Hoy finishing his career on the track with seven Olympic medals.

The Scot is an 11-time world champion but it’s his efforts on the track in the Olympics for which he is most fondly remembered.

Hoy won a silver, alongside Craig MacLean and Jason Queally, in the 2000 Games in Sydney before securing his first gold (1km Track time trial) in Athens four years later.

He went on to collect three more golds in Beijing, before ending his Olympic career in London, where he collected another two golds in the Keirin and Team Sprint, taking his overall tally to seven.

No.3 - Sir Bradley Wiggins

Cycling

Five Gold Medals
One Silver Medal
Two Bronze Medals

Bradley Wiggins’ first Olympics came in Sydney in 2000, when he was part of the GB track team – winning bronze in the Team Pursuit.

Four years later, he collected the full set in Beijing with gold in the Individual Pursuit, silver in the Team Pursuit and a bronze in the Madison.

In 2008, Wiggins won two golds and then changed to road cycling in 2012, taking top spot in the London Time Trial.

The 2012 Tour de France winner returned to the track in his final Olympics, in 2016, when he added another gold to his tally in the Team Pursuit.

No.4 - Sir Steve Redgrave

Rowing

Five Gold Medals
One Bronze Medal

Nobody on this list has competed in more Olympic Games than Sir Steve Redgrave, who started his medal haul in Los Angeles back in 1984.

He claimed his first gold in the Coxed Four in California, before winning gold in the Coxless Pairs with Andy Holmes and bronze in the Coxed Pair with Holmes and Patrick Sweeney in 1988.

Gold number three was collected in Barcelona in 1992, when he teamed up with Matthew Pinsent to win the Coxless Pairs.

After going to the top of the podium again in the same event - again with Pinsent - in Atlanta four years later, Redgrave planned to call it a day.

But the Olympic icon was persuaded to go again in Sydney 2000, with Redgrave and Pinsent joined by Tim Foster and James Cracknell to win gold in the Coxless Four.

No.5 - Sir Ben Ainslie

Sailing

Four Gold Medals
One Silver Medal

Another knighted star completes our list, with Ben Ainslie proving to be Britain’s greatest Olympic sailor.

The man from Macclesfield won five medals in five consecutive Games, starting with a silver in the Laser class at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Four years later, Ainslie went one better and claimed gold in the same class, before stepping up to a larger boat in Athens.

The Englishman took to the water in a Finn and won gold in Greece in 2004, before taking on the challenge again in both 2008 and 2012.

Ainslie stood on the top of the podium in both Beijing and London, taking his Olympic medal tally to five.

Olympics

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