BRITAIN today celebrates being crowned as a sporting superpower after our Olympic heroes stunned the world by coming second in the medal table.
The tally is two more than we amassed with home advantage in London four years ago, when we came third.
Our Rio triumph comes after our athletes beat sporting giant China, a nation of 1.3billion people, into third place.
Theresa May led salutes to our Team GB superstars as the Games ended last night.
Downing Street tweeted: “Outstanding achievements from Mo Farah and Team GB. Rio will be remembered as a history-making Olympics for Britain.”
UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl saluted our athletes — and the lottery cash that has made their successes possible. She said: “To win more medals than we did in London and to be ahead of China is a spectacular place to be. We are one of those sporting superpowers now.
“Our athletes have delivered arguably the greatest achievement in British sporting history.
“Their dedication, skill and ability to perform on the biggest stage has delivered historic results and I hope the nation feels proud of and united by their team.
“Our high-performance system is the envy of the world, thanks to sustained investment by our government and the National Lottery and has now delivered something unprecedented.”
Twenty years ago British athletes trudged home from the Atlanta Olympics in 36th position with just one gold and an overall tally of 15 medals.
But huge lottery cash funding, which works out to about £4.5million per medal, has transformed UK sport.
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Mo Farah, Andy Murray, Justin Rose, Nicola Adams, Laura Trott and fiance Jason Kenny, gymnast Max Whitlock and our first ever women’s hockey champions led the charge in Rio.
Nicholl, speaking from Rio’s Athletes’ Village, said: “It’s been a real privilege to be here. We’re making sporting history — nearly 130 medallists across 19 sports compared to 17 in London.
“Since lottery funding came on board Britain has won 700 medals.
“Through the lottery, vital resources have fuelled our success from Sydney right through to Rio. We’ve all felt and seen the impact of this success on ourselves and on the United Kingdom.
“Success in sport can inspire the nation. We invest in medal success to create a proud and healthy nation.”
British Olympic chief Bill Sweeney said: “It’s been a brilliant Games, thanks hugely to lottery funding.
"It’s been 20 years of investment, not an overnight success.
"We’ve had five Games of medal growth, an unbelievable achievement.”
Sweeney warned there will be stiff challenges at Tokyo 2020.
He said: “Tokyo will be tougher than Rio. At Tokyo the domestic team will be much stronger and the Chinese team will be desperate to make a strong statement.”
Soaring sporting pride sparked a swathe of congratulatory messages yesterday.
Mocking Emma Thompson’s criticism of Britain earlier this year, Tory MEP Dan Hannan said: “1 per cent of the world’s population, 9 per cent of the medals.
“Not bad for a ‘cake-filled misery-laden grey old island’ eh?”
Andrea Leadsom, the Tory Theresa May defeated to become PM tweeted: “What an amazing Olympics. Many congratulations to all members of Team GB you did us proud.”
Sports minister Tracey Crouch added: "Team GB's now record-breaking medal haul in Rio is an incredible achievement and our athletes have made the country incredibly proud."
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