Stars of London 2012 – Where Are They Now?

From successful jump jockeys to dairy farmers and trainee lawyers, a number of Great Britain’s class of 2012 have reinvented themselves in the five years that have passed since they struck gold in front of their adoring home supporters.

But the majority of the 43 individual British athletes who managed to top the podium in London continue to compete at an elite level, with Tokyo 2020 proving a realistic target for those who cannot get the quest for success out of their systems.

Perhaps the most startling career shift came from 2012 keirin winner Victoria Pendleton, who switched to horse racing and in 2016 achieved her ambition of competing in the Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham, where she finished a creditable fifth.

Double trap star Peter Wilson went from unlikely fame on the Olympic shooting range straight home to his family farm in Dorset, announcing his retirement from the sport two years later having found he had nothing more to prove.

“Having achieved the goals I set myself – world record, world number one and Olympic gold, I struggled to find a new incentive to compete,” confessed Wilson, who nevertheless did stay on as coach to rising teenage star James Dedman.

Motivation was also a factor for Tim Baillie, who partnered Etienne Stott to a surprise gold in the canoeing C2 event in London, and retired two years later saying: “I have realised I no longer have the underlying desire required to commit to the sport.”

In total, of the 43 British gold medallists from London, 18 have either retired completely from their respective sports or continue to pursue them in a different capacity and no longer as members of a centrally-funded GB programme.

For many of the 25 who are still competing, London 2012 was just the start. Neither her surprise win at London’s ExCel Centre nor the convincing retention of her crown in Rio has quashed the desire of taekwondo star Jade Jones to go for a third gold in Tokyo.

“I will definitely go for it again,” said Jones, who took a brief break after Brazil to appear in the celebrity winter sports programme ‘The Jump’. “I am only 23 years old and I love taekwondo, and I love to fight.”

In many ways, Murray’s London win – also against Federer – could be seen as the catalyst for the stunning run of success which followed, including two Wimbledon titles and a second Olympic singles gold in Rio.

But perhaps the most spectacular road of the London 2012 alumni has been taken by Anthony Joshua, who went into the Games as a lightly regarded super-heavyweight and left it with a gold medal round his neck, brushing off the blank cheques of potential promoters.

Less than five years later Joshua was beating Wladimir Klitschko in front of a capacity crowd at Wembley to become world heavyweight champion – completing a rise which began one unforgettable summer when the Olympics came home.