Welcome to the fifth episode of Medals & More, the podcast taking you behind the scenes of British Olympic and Paralympic sport.
Hosted by Dame Katherine Grainger, Britain’s most decorated female Olympian and now the Chair of UK Sport, Medals & More provides you with a unique insight into the world of high-performance sport.
In this episode, we are joined by a special guest in Team GB’s Chef de Mission, Mark England OBE. Mark has a wealth of experience in the Olympic sector having attended the last ten Winter and Summer Games, with Tokyo 2020 due to be his eleventh.
Tokyo was also set to be his second in his current role as Chef de Mission, having held the same position for the hugely successful Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Recorded after the announcement that Tokyo 2020 will now take place in 2021, Mark talks openly about what his role as Chef de Mission consists of, his personal highlight from his time as one of the most influential people in British high-performance sport and how the postponement has affected Team GB’s plans.
“It’s just been the most complex and lengthy piece of work we’ve ever had to undertake. The postponement of the Olympic Games is something the likes of which we’ll never see again. Having had the Games postponed, it is probably the best we could ever hope for that it has been replicated almost to the day.
“We know the date of the opening ceremony, we know the date the athlete village opens, we know when we have to enter a team and it’s all within 24 hours plus a year to what it was in 2020. So in that regard it’s been a very simple operation.
“But we have had to unravel hundreds of contracts to see whether our infrastructure in country can be replicated in Tokyo 2021 and that’s taken most of our time.”
Listen below for a whole lot more from Mark and don't forget to subscribe and join us as we continue to bring you fascinating and exclusive insights into the world of Olympic and Paralympic sport.
Listen to our five episodes below or download here.