It takes something special to break the glass ceiling at the Olympic Games.
Sporting lore suggests that experience is a prerequisite to perform on the biggest stage; to deal with the nerves and everything that comes with a Games.
A number of Team GB athletes defied such logic to put in breakthrough performances in Paris.
Ed Lowe: track cycling
Lincolnshire’s Lowe only joined the British Cycling Podium programme in October.
“Ed was chucked in at the deep end,” said team-mate Jack Carlin. “There was a lot of moaning, a lot of ‘I’m so tired all the time.’”
The 20-year-old took on ‘P1’, the role of starter in the three-man team sprint, without so much as a European or World Championship appearance under his belt.
Lowe did it so well that he is now an Olympic silver medallist, combining with Carlin and Hamish Turnbull to exceed pre-Games expectations and ensure they have reached the podium in all five events they have entered as a trio.
Sam Reardon: athletics
Dubbed ‘the accidental Olympian’ in the mainstream media, Reardon’s rise to becoming a double Olympic medallist is arguably the steepest of all.
The 20-year-old did not compete at June’s Olympic Trials due to hamstring issues and was training on his home track in Bromley when he found out he was needed as a late replacement for Charlie Carvell, who withdrew from the men’s 4x400m relay pool due to injury.
Reardon carried his excellent form into the Games, running the first leg of the mixed 4x400m and the heats of the men’s 4x400m, both resulting in excellent bronze medals.
“It’s been a crazy non-stop journey,” said Reardon. “It’s all come at me at 200mph but I’ve tried to soak it up.”
Rebecca Wilde: rowing
Ten months ago, Wilde had surgery on her forearms and was fighting for her place on the GB Rowing Team.
The 26-year-old from Somerset performed well in the spring and earned herself a place in a double with Tokyo Olympian. Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne.
“We went into the double and it clicked,” said Hodgkins-Byrne. “Becky is less experienced than me but she’s far stronger.”
The duo stepped on superbly through the Olympic regatta and Wilde’s third-ever international race ended in a fairytale bronze medal against all of the odds.
Becky Moody: equestrian
“I was expecting a nice 10-day holiday in France,” said Moody, who was a late call-up from the reserve ranks to the Games alongside homebred horse Jagerbomb.
Making her full Great Britain debut at the Olympics, Moody and Jagerbomb showed no sign of nerves and played the role of pathfinders to perfection as they registered a personal best to engineer team bronze.
They became the great entertainers at Versailles, one of the most popular horse-rider pairings, cemented by another lifetime best in the individual event.
The emergence of Moody and ‘Bomber’ is all the more remarkable given that she nearly sold him as a young horse because she found him boring, only stopping short of doing so on the advice of her sister Hannah.
Harry Hepworth: gymnastics
The youngest member of Team GB’s gymnastics squad, Hepworth reached three apparatus finals on his global debut at the 2023 World Championships.
It took upgraded routines and a heap of hard work to translate that into Olympic medal standard and that is exactly what the Leeds-born star did in Paris.
Hepworth soared to bronze on vault, the first medal won by a British man on that piece.
Aged just 20, he has limitless potential and towering ambitions on rings in particular, meaning British fans will be seeing plenty of more of Hepworth in the years to come.
Sportsbeat 2024