By Alan Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain hopes France makes the most of home advantage at next year’s Paris Olympics for the good of the Games, Chef de Mission Mark England said on Wednesday while making clear he still expected Team GB to beat the hosts in the medal table.
Team GB finished fourth as the top European nation in the 2020 Tokyo table with 22 golds, compared to 10 each for Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy.
At the 2016 Rio Games Britain were second behind the United States while at home in London in 2012 the hosts were third behind the Americans and China.
“I think the wheels are going to have to come off if we’re not top five,” England told reporters at an event announcing the first Team GB athletes, all sailors, for Paris 2024.
“We’re very confident of top five, we want to be the top European nation again.”
England said France had an advantage in designing courses and choosing locations but that went with the territory and was accepted.
“I hope the host country does really well,” he said. “I think it’s important for the Games. You can see at the rugby World Cup, just the excitement that the French rugby team are bringing to the whole of the country.
“To be fair and to be candid they (France) didn’t have a great Tokyo. But certainly we can see, through a number of their sports, that they’re on a serious, serious rise up,” he added.
“So we’re looking forward to the competition with the home team for sure.”
Paris lost out to London for the right to stage the 2012 Olympics by a 54-50 vote, after losing to Barcelona for 1992 and Beijing for 2008.
The French capital will be the second city, after London, to host the Summer Games three times when they start next July.
“We love that (rivalry), of course we do. For me, having a successful host nation is massive for the Olympic Games, for the public support for the Games as it was across the whole of the UK when we hosted the Games here,” said England.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
