Beijing Olympic Gallery
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Beijing 2008 saw the best performance by a British team in 100 years. The fourth place finish in the medal was the culmination of four years training and preparation.
The total number of medals targeted across the sports was 41 and Team GB bought home 47, 19 of which were gold, 13 silver and 15 bronze.
UK Sport - in its role as the nation's high-performance sports agency - supported our most promising athletes in 24 Olympic and 20 Paralympic sports in their bids for medal success. UK Sport set a target of 8th place in the Olympic medal table which the team smashed.
Cycling hit the top of the British medal table with eight gold, four silver and two bronze. Chris Hoy secured a hat-trick of gold medals becoming the first Briton in 100 years to win three golds at the same Olympics.
Rebecca Adlington put swimming in the spotlight with two gold medals in the 400m and 800m freestyle. There were also two silver and two bronze for the British swimmers.
The British rowing team bought home two gold medals, as well as two silver and two bronze. Great Britain won the Olympic title in the coxless fours for the third consecutive Games.
With London the next host of the Games in 2012, the Beijing Games have taken on added significance as a staging post to further improve performance on home soil.
You can see some athletes talking about the Games and how important support through the World Class Performance Programme has been to them in UK Sport’s Video Library.
GB’s athletes have benefited significantly from National Lottery support of the World Class Performance Programme. If you have bought a National Lottery ticket you have made a difference by supporting our best athletes in their medal ambitions for Beijing and through to London.
