Stockport has topped the list of gold medal-producing towns in the UK, according to a new study.
Figures gathered by Decathlon tallied up every Olympic and Paralympic gold medallist since 2000, ranking the birth towns of each athlete by both the number of individual medallists produced, and total golds won.
Stockport, Leeds and Cardiff have the highest number of gold medallists (six each), which accounts for 6.6% of all Team GB Olympic and Paralympic champions.
However, both Stockport and the Welsh capital have more total medals than Leeds, with 12 each.
This is bettered only by the small town of Cheddleton in Staffordshire, with all 14 of its golds coming courtesy of Para-equestrian athlete Sir David Lee Pearson, who has dominated the dressage events across multiple games.
Stockport MP Navendu Mishra was especially pleased with his town’s latest achievement.
He said: “I was absolutely delighted to hear that Stockport has produced the highest number of Olympic and Paralympic Gold Medallists of any town or city since 2000, though it comes as no surprise.
“Hearing the stories of the athletes’ journeys from amateur to professional to Gold Medallist is always inspirational.
“All medallists are great ambassadors for our town and I hope they will be recognised as such in our borough.”
In total, there have been 490 gold medals won by 291 British athletes since 2000.
As a region, Greater London has produced the highest proportion, accounting for 11.6% of these athletes, with 30 in total being born within the various boroughs of the city.
This is followed by Greater Manchester, whose total of 18 gold medallists was good enough for second place on the list of counties and regions.
On a national scale, England dominated the figures, producing 81% of all medallists, at 226 in total.
This was followed by 21 from Wales (7.5%), 18 from Scotland (5.7%) and just one from Northern Ireland (<1%).
Interestingly, Germany has actually produced a greater number of gold medals than Northern Ireland, with two athletes accounting for nine golds and 1.8% of the total.
They weren’t the only Brits born overseas to win gold since 2000, with 14 athletes having been born outside the UK.
Most notably among these are Britain’s most successful track athlete of all time, Somali-born Mo Farah, alongside cycling legend Sir Bradley Wiggins, who was born in Belgium to an Australian father and British mother.
In total, a whopping 177 different towns and cities in the UK, and 16 from abroad, have produced Olympic gold medallists since the turn of the new millennium.
Hopefully there will be plenty more new locations added to this list soon, with the Winter Olympics in Beijing just getting underway.
(Feature image credit: pixabay.com)
