Rio Olympics 2016: Team GB’s Olympic medallists celebrate successes by hand drawing sketches of their golden moments in Rio

IT’S SAID a picture is worth a thousand words – but sometimes a simple stick drawing can be too, especially for Team GB’s triumphant Olympians.

Some of our biggest medal winners at Rio 2016 have swapped the podium for pens to try and sketch and capture the moment of their respective successes.

Stars including Laura Trott, Max Whitlock, Justin Rose, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Tom Daley visited the official Team GB kit supplier Adidas ‘Creators Base in Rio after securing their medals to try and transfer their golden achievements onto paper.

Adidas, who also commissioned a team of professional illustrators to reinterpret the athletes sketches,   unveiled the artworks on Monday.

And as you can see, some of the most magical images from the Games in South America have been captured.

Laura Trott, Britain’s most successful female Olympian with four gold medals to her name, chose to commemorate the moment she shared with fiancée Jason Kenny.
Laura said: “I picked the moment where I went and kissed Jason after his win in the Kierin to win his sixth gold medal.

“It was a mixture of relief but also feeling so happy for him. The atmosphere was incredible, it was like a switch flicked on and he just became a superstar.

“I remember crying and he just had this massive smile on his face. Even though there were cameras everywhere, it felt like a moment for us. It was the perfect end to the Games.”

Gymnastics hero Max Whitlock, double gold medallist and winner of a bronze at the Games, chose to draw himself on the podium and said: “For me the Games has been a long journey. It started back in 2012 and culminated in standing on top of that podium in Rio.

“My illustration shows the road from that point to now. My supporters, friends and family have been there the whole way. When I got to the spotlight of the Olympic Games I knew it was just me out there but I had four years of support and hard work behind me to help me succeed.”

Justin Rose, winner of the gold medal in the very first men’s golf competition, said: “This sketch is my hole-in-one. To be the first to hit one in the Olympic Games is something that will go down in the history books. It’ll probably be a trivia question one day.

“There’s always an element of luck involved, but I knew I’d hit a great shot and it was a beautiful moment for me. To get the job done and win a gold medal is an honour and an incredible achievement.”

Cyclist Elinor Barker, who won a gold medal in the women’s team pursuit, said: “This is the second we crossed the line. It was an incredible release and I just screamed ‘wow’. I knew we were going fast, but had no idea we had broken the record. When I was racing, it was just the other girls, the track and the pain.

“After we went over, everything started coming into focus and I knew we had won Olympic gold. I saw my mum and dad and GB flags, it was amazing.”

And Jo Roswell-Shand, who retained her team pursuit title from London 2012, said: “For me the moment that stands out is when I rose up on the bank with three laps to go and went to slot in behind the rest of the girls. We had been flying in the earlier rounds but knew the final would be tough.

“However, when I saw the American team in my periphery, they weren’t where we expected them to be and I knew we had won. It didn’t change anything, we still had to ride hard to the end before we could celebrate.”