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27th Jul 2021

People called Tom from Great Britain have won as many gold medals as all of Australia

Kieran Galpin

Tom’s rule the Olympics

In many cultures across the world, a name has an innate power to it. It is said in eastern cultures that to name something is to have power over it. There has been no better proof of this than Team GB’s performance at Tokyo 2020, where three gold medal winners are all called Tom.

Shockingly, the Toms have more medals combined than the entirety of Australia. Perhaps the government should call all Toms for duty before Paris 2024, that way, we can get them trained up and ready to bring home buckets of gold medals.

Tom Daley finally got his gold medal after fourteen years of tireless work. Having grown emotional multiple times, Daley then dedicated his speech to LGBTQ youth, which spurred loving messages from across the country.

Mountain biker Tom Pidcock also brought home the gold, unravelling a Great Britain flag as he crossed the finish line.

“I’m always better when I take control myself. I take my own lines, my own speed. Once we started I was fine, all the nerves kind of went and I concentrated on the race,” he told the BBC.

“It’s nothing like any other race. The Olympics just transcends any sport. You compete and represent your country and everyone in your country is behind you, no matter in what sports they like. It’s just national pride, it’s unbelievable.”

In the 200m freestyle, Tom Dean took home the gold while his teammate Duncan Scott got the silver. Dean touched home in one minute 44.22 seconds, securing a British record in his debut Games.

“The three-week build-up back to training had to be structured to prevent any long-term damage to my heart and lungs, so it was scary,” the swimmer, who has contracted Covid-19 on two occasions this year, explained to the BBC following his extraordinary win.

“It was upsetting because no-one takes six weeks off in the build-up to an Olympics. It was a real shock to the system.”

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