Great Britain have been tipped for a storming Olympics after the success of the home nations at the Commonwealth Games.
Team England’s chair Ian Metcalfe is standing down next month at the end of his cycle of two Games at the helm.
He is proud of the set-up successor John Steele will inherit after England finished this month’s Games in Birmingham with a record 176 medals – 57 of them gold.
Metcalfe feels it will leave GB in a strong position for Paris 2024 after Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland performed well too in Brum.
He believes that the Olympics across the English Channel will be like a home games, with many athletes who emerged in Birmingham, such as four-time gold medal gymnast Jake Jarman and double gold medal diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, set to compete again.
Metcalfe said: “At Team England we recognised we had a unique opportunity to unite a nation in these uncertain times with the largest most diverse and inclusive team in English sport.
“We aimed to inspire the country and bring smiles to peoples’ faces following hard on the heels of the wonderful Lionesses’ Euro success and we believed we nailed this opportunity.
“We were directly helped by Sport England but UK Sport also provided support and guidance to all of the home nations.
“These same staff and many athletes can now use their multi-sports games experiences for the benefit of GB in Paris, which is shaping up to be very exciting.”
Confidence is growing after Northern Ireland registered its best Games with 18 medals as their boxers dominated the medal leaderboard, taking five gold medals and seven overall.
Scotland produced its second-best Commonwealth Games medal haul, winning 51 medals and Wales got 28.
Metcalfe, a former managing partner of Birmingham law firm Wragge & Co, also reflected on the wider success of the Games in the Second City.
More than 1.5million tickets were sold for the event as Birmingham embraced the Games , which Metcalfe helped bring to the city in 2017 after original hosts Durban pulled out over financial woes.
He added: “Birmingham delivered - the city looked stunning in the sunshine and throughout the 11 days of sport.
“The people and wonderful 14,000 volunteers embraced the occasion.
“The athletes relished performing infront of capacity crowds at every venue either side of fantastic opening and closing ceremonies.
“At the end, Ozzy Osbourne summed it up - Birmingham forever!”
