Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The United Kingdom was represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), one of only five National Olympic Committees to have competed in every modern Summer Olympic Games since the inaugural event in 1896. The team of athletes selected to compete for the UK was officially known as Team GB; the delegation of 549 consisted of 313 competitors (169 men and 144 women) accompanied by 236 officials. The team incorporated athletes from the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland (whose citizens may be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympics if they have elected to hold Irish citizenship). Additionally, three of the British Overseas Territories compete separately from Britain in Olympic competition, namely Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.
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 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. 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.
As the UK was to host the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the closing ceremony on 24 August included a London 2012 handover performance featuring football star David Beckham, singer Leona Lewis and musician Jimmy Page, as well as London mayor Boris Johnson and a London double-decker bus.
Medals
At the close of the Games, Great Britain had won a total of 47 medals, 19 of which were gold. This was the second highest medal haul ever achieved by Team GB and the highest in a century, representing the team's best Olympic performance since the 1908 Summer Olympics, which Britain hosted in London. Great Britain finished fourth overall in the Olympics medal table, behind China, United States and Russia.
The following British competitors won medals at the Games (in August 2008). 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.
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Medal Name Sport Event Day Date Cycling Women's road race 2 Swimming Women's 400 m freestyle 3 Cycling Men's team sprint 7 Swimming Women's 800 m freestyle 8 Rowing Men's coxless four 8 Cycling Men's individual pursuit 8 Cycling Men's keirin 8 Sailing Yngling class 9 Rowing Men's lightweight double sculls 9 Sailing Finn class 9 Cycling Women's individual pursuit 9 Cycling Men's team pursuit 10 Sailing Men's Laser class 11 Cycling Women's sprint 11 Cycling Men's sprint 11 Athletics Women's 400 m 11 Sailing Men's Star class 13 Canoeing Men's K-1 1000 m 14 Boxing Middleweight 15 Canoeing Men's slalom C-1 4 Cycling Women's road time trial 5 Cycling Men's keirin 8 Rowing Women's quadruple sculls 9 Cycling Women's individual pursuit 9 (cox) Rowing Men's eight 9 Sailing Men's 470 10 Cycling Men's sprint 11 Athletics Men's high jump 11 Swimming Women's 10 km open water 12 Swimming Men's 10 km open water 13 Athletics Men's triple jump 13 Modern pentathlon Women's modern pentathlon 14 Swimming Women's 400 m freestyle 3 Equestrian Team eventing 4 Equestrian Individual eventing 4 Rowing Women's double sculls 8 Rowing Men's double sculls 8 Cycling Men's points race 8 Cycling Men's individual pursuit 8 * Athletics Women's heptathlon 8 Gymnastics Men's pommel horse 9 Swimming Women's 10 km open water 12 Sailing Women's RS:X 12 Athletics Women's 400 m hurdles 12 * Athletics Women's javelin throw 13 Boxing Light heavyweight 14 Boxing Super heavyweight 14 Canoeing Men's K-1 500 m 15 * Athletics Men's 4 x 400 metres relay 15 Taekwondo Women's +67 kg 15 * Athletics Women's 4 x 400 metres relay 15 | width="22%" align="left" valign="top" | Medals by disciplineDisciplineTotalCycling84214Sailing4116Rowing2226Swimming2226Athletics1258Canoeing1113Boxing1023Modern pentathlon0101Equestrian0022Gymnastics0011Taekwondo0011Total191319*51
Medals by dateDayDate Total19 Aug0000210 Aug1001311 Aug1012412 Aug0123513 Aug0101614 Aug0000715 Aug1001816 Aug41510917 Aug43181018 Aug11021119 Aug42061220 Aug01341321 Aug12141422 Aug11241523 Aug10451624 Aug0000Total 19 13 19* 51 * The original bronze medal count for Team GB was 15. Between July 2017 and July 2019, four bronze medals were awarded retrospectively in Athletics (see medal table left), bringing the total up to 19.
Multiple medallists The following British competitors won multiple medals at the 2008 Olympic Games. Name Medal Sport Event Cycling Men's team sprintMen's keirinMen's sprint Cycling Men's individual pursuitMen's team pursuit Swimming Women's 400 m freestyleWomen's 800 m freestyle Cycling Men's team sprintMen's sprint Canoeing Men's K-1 1000 mMen's K-1 500 m Athletics Women's 400 metresWomen's 4 × 400 metres relay Equestrian Team eventingIndividual eventing Athletics Women's heptathlonWomen's 4 × 400 metres relay
Medal targets 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.
The gold medal expectation was exceeded on 19 August 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 20 August 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 1000 m K-1 canoeing event, claiming Britain's 41st physical medal (three further medals were guaranteed in boxing at the time), and the target was exceeded when Heather Fell secured the 42nd medal, a silver, in the women's modern pentathlon.
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 19 August when Victoria Pendleton won Britain's 12th cycling medal, a gold in the women's sprint event. 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. Altogether, Team GB won seven of the ten gold medals available in the track cycling events at the velodrome. The swimmers also doubled their targeted medal count when David Davies won the team's sixth swimming medal – a silver in the men's 10 km open water marathon on 21 August. Despite the men's and women's archery teams having placed second and third, respectively, at the 2007 world championships, 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.
Sport Target Won Target metArchery 2 0 Athletics 5 8 Badminton 1 0 Boxing 2 3 Canoeing 2 3 Cycling 6 14 Diving 1 0 Equestrian 3 2 Gymnastics (artistic) 1 1 Judo 2 0 Modern pentathlon 1 1 Rowing 4 6 Sailing 4 6 Shooting 2 0 Swimming 3 6 Taekwondo 1 1 Triathlon 1 0 Total 41 51 Total expected 35 51 Total gold 12 19
Archery
At the 2007 World Outdoor Target Championships, Great Britain's men's team placed second and its women's team placed third. This qualified the nation to send the maximum quota of three men and three women to the 2008 Olympics.
Men AthleteEventRanking roundRound of 64Round of 32Round of 16QuarterfinalsSemi-finalsFinal / ScoreSeedOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankLaurence GodfreyIndividual65734 (31)L 109–114Did not advanceSimon Terry6707 (58)L 104–105Did not advanceAlan Wills66121 (44)W 103–98 (12)W 110–109 (28)L 104–108Did not advanceLaurence GodfreySimon TerryAlan WillsTeam19985colspan=2 (12)L 210–214Did not advance
Women AthleteEventRanking roundRound of 64Round of 32Round of 16QuarterfinalsSemi-finalsFinal / ScoreSeedOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankCharlotte BurgessIndividual62340 (25)W 106–104 (8)L 96–110Did not advanceNaomi Folkard6518 (57)W 107–95 (40)W 110–96 (9)L 97–106Did not advanceAlison Williamson6517 (58)W 108–99 (26)L 108–112Did not advanceCharlotte BurgessNaomi FolkardAlison WilliamsonTeam19252colspan=2 (7)W 201–196 (3)L 202–208 (5)L 201–2034
Athletics
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. 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. 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. She was eventually fit enough to start the race but struggled to complete the distance and finished in 23rd position.