Welsh athletes achieve record Olympic medal haul

Emma Finucane, Jeremiah Azu, Matt Richards and Elinor Barker are among the Welsh Olympians who won medals for Team GB in Paris

Welsh athletes have achieved a record Olympics medal haul in Paris as part of Team GB's return.

The Welsh contingent will head back from France with a total of 13 medals - three golds, three silvers and seven bronze.

The medal haul beats the tally of 10 achieved at Rio 2016 which was made up of four golds and six silvers.

The Games in Brazil remain officially Wales' most successful Olympics because of the number of golds won.

In Tokyo three years ago, Welsh athletes returned with eight medals - three gold, three silver and two bronze.

In Paris, rowing and cycling were the most successful sports for Welsh athletes, with five podium positions coming in each of those sports.

There were also two swimming medals, from Matt Richards, and an athletics relay bronze for sprinter Jeremiah Azu.

There were some notable individual efforts, with sprint cyclist Emma Finucane becoming the first Welsh athlete to win three medals - a gold and two bronze - at one Olympics in her debut Games.

The 21-year-old from Carmarthen also became the first British woman since athlete Mary Rand to take a hat-trick of podium finishes at a single Games.

Finucane's fellow track cyclist Elinor Barker became the first Welsh woman to win four Olympic medals in her career, with a silver and bronze in Paris adding to team pursuit gold and silver in Rio and Tokyo respectively.

Finucane claimed two individual medals and Richards achieved a solo silver, with the rest of the Welsh podium finishes coming in team events.

GOLD

Matt Richards & Kieran Bird (swimming - men’s 4x200m freestyle relay)

Emma Finucane (cycling - women’s team sprint)

Harry Brightmore (rowing - men’s eight, cox)

SILVER

Matt Richards (swimming - men’s 200m freestyle)

Ollie Wynne-Griffith (rowing - men’s pair)

Elinor Barker (cycling - women’s madison)

BRONZE

Eve Stewart (rowing - women’s eight)

Matt Aldridge (rowing - men’s four)

Becky Wilde (rowing - women’s double sculls)

Elinor Barker, Jess Roberts, Anna Morris (cycling - women’s team pursuit)

Emma Finucane (cycling - women’s keirin)

Jeremiah Azu (athletics - men’s 4x100m relay)

Emma Finucane (cycling - women's sprint).

Golden moments

The first Welsh gold came in the pool, in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, with Welsh duo Matt Richards and Kieran Bird involved.

Richards swam in the final with James Guy, Tom Dean and Duncan Scott, while Bird was also given a gold after competing in the heats.

Emma Finucane also enjoyed team success when she joined forces with Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant to win the track cycling team sprint, breaking the world record three times in the process.

Harry Brightmore says the relief of coxing Great Britain's men's eights to gold at the Paris Olympics has given him peace.

The 30-year-old came into the Games off the back of coxing the team to successive world titles in 2022 and 2023.

Silver linings

Matt Richards missed out on Olympic gold by 0.02 seconds but took silver in a thrilling 200m freestyle final in Paris.

Out in lane one after qualifying seventh fastest, Richards came agonisingly close as Romania's rising star David Popovici touched first to win gold by a fingertip.

Welsh rower Ollie Wynne-Griffith and his childhood friend Tom George were pipped to the gold medal in the men's pair in a dramatic finale.

Wynne-Griffith and George led for the majority of the race and looked set to win but Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic charged past them in the closing 20m and won by 0.45 seconds to retain their title.

Elinor Barker and Neah Evans won a hard-earned silver in an enthralling madison.

A huge push on the final sprint gave world champions Barker and Evans a total of 31 points, six behind gold medallists Italy.

Battling bronze efforts

Welsh rower Eve Stewart won a bronze medal in the women's eight with Romania claiming the gold and Canada winning silver.

Matt Aldridge was part of the men's four who won bronze with Oli Wilkes, David Ambler and Freddie Davidson.

Becky Wilde celebrated bronze medal in the women's double sculls with Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, as the Team GB pair finished behind winners New Zealand and Romania.

Welsh trio Elinor Barker, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts formed 75% of the Great Britain women's team pursuit squad who timed a late charge against Italy to win the bronze medal race.

Emma Finucane took bronze in the women's keirin to win a "surreal" second medal of the Paris Olympics.

Welsh sprinter Jeremiah Azu won an Olympic bronze as part of the Great Britain squad in the 4x100m relay.

Azu ran the opening leg with the baton handed over to Louie Hinchliffe, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Zharnel Hughes.

The race was won by Canada with South Africa taking the silver medal.

The relay came six days after Azu was disqualified from the individual 100m event because of a false start.

It was a first track and field medal for a Welsh athlete since Iwan Thomas and Jamie Baulch won 4x400m relay silver in Atlanta in 1996.

On the final day of competition, Emma Finucane created history by becoming the first Welsh athlete in any sport to win three Olympic medals at one Games by achieving a bronze in the women's sprint.