What happened to the kings and queens of London 2012?

A year after the greatest show on earth, Matt Majendie discovers how life has changed for 10 Team GB heroes and 10 stars from around the globe who lit up the Games
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26 July 2013

Nicola Adams

Olympic legacy has been a strong aspect for Adams post-London. According to Sport England, there has been a 50 per cent rise in the number of women either boxing or boxing training once a week. Adams, who revealed this month that she boxed to gold with an injured knuckle, underwent surgery in December to repair damaged ligaments. She has opted to remain in the amateur ranks.

Sir Ben Ainslie

Barely had his fourth consecutive Olympic gold been placed around his neck than Ainslie packed up for his next sailing mission, the America’s Cup in San Francisco. It has been one mired in tragedy after he watched rival boat Artemis capsize and his great friend ‘Bart’ Simpson lose his life under it. Ainslie’s Olympic status was recognised this year, when he was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours list. He also made a television appearance on Top Gear, racing a catamaran against Jeremy Clarkson in a Toyota Corolla hire car — and won.

Great Britain's Nicola Adams with her gold medal after her fight with China's Canacan Ren during the Women's fly 55kg fight in he South Arena 2 in the Excel Arena, London. PA

Alistair Brownlee

The cherubic triathlete has proved to be among the world’s best once more this season, winning in Kitzbuhel last month, after being out with an ankle injury. Victory at the annual London event — which this year is in October — remains the goal but he faces competition from younger brother Jonny. Brownlee graduated with an MSc in finance at Leeds Metropolitan University at the same time as comedian Barry Cryer and Emmerdale actor Gaynor Faye picked up honorary degrees there.

Sir Chris Hoy

As of Wednesday night, Hoy was on the red carpet tweeting pictures galore from the premiere of Alpha Papa, the new Alan Partridge movie. Having retired in April despite initial ambitions to ride at next year’s Commonwealth Games, the six-time Olympic gold medallist will act as an ambassador for the event and has also launched his own range of two-wheel machinery, Hoy Bikes.

Anthony Joshua

It is nearly a year since Joshua won a gold on the final day of London 2012 and there had been much conjecture about his plans until this week, when he finally announced his decision to turn pro. The Londoner, who has not fought since the Olympics because of an ankle injury, will step back into the ring competitively for the first time for his professional debut at the O2 on October 5.

Katherine Grainger

The eternal bridesmaid of British Olympic rowing until winning a gold at Eton Dorney with Anna Watkins, Grainger revealed in the wake of the Games that she had received a series of marriage proposals. She has since completed a PhD in homicide and is yet to decide on her sporting future. Aged 37, she hinted she could return to the sport but will have to make a decision by September, the start of the new rowing year.

Mohamed Farah of Great Britain celebrates winning gold in Men's 10,000m Final on Day 8 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 4, 2012 in London, England.
Getty

Mo Farah

Of the stars of 2012, the Londoner (right) has been among the busiest. He returns to the scene of his double Olympic gold tomorrow at the Anniversary Games to run over the shorter distance of 3,000m. This year he has competed in the London Marathon — well, half of it, at least — as well as last week breaking Steve Cram’s 28-year-old British 1,500m record. He is estimated to have banked £2.5million in sponsorship deals, most notably from Virgin.

Laura Trott

The bubbly cyclist (pictured below with the OBE she received last month) and girlfriend of fellow two-time London gold medallist Jason Kenny, has, along with Becky James, taken over the mantle from Victoria Pendleton as Britain’s leading ladies of the velodrome. In February, she won a team pursuit gold at the World Championships but had to make do with second place in the omnium. She has also since joined new road racing team Wiggle Honda, who receive backing from none other than Sir Bradley Wiggins.

Missy Franklin

Arguably her most notable feat was celebrating her 18th birthday in May nearly a year after her four Olympic golds in the 100m and 200m backstroke, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley. Prince Harry, in Colorado to start the Warrior Games for wounded soldiers, sang happy birthday to the teenager who left Rebecca Adlington’s dreams in tatters. At the national championships, she qualified for five individual events at the World Championships and will, no doubt, add some world titles to the Olympic ones of last summer.

Sir Bradley Wiggins

Last year very much belonged to Wiggins as he became Britain’s first winner of the Tour de France and followed that up with an Olympic gold in the time trial. He ended a glorious year by being voted BBC Sports Personality Of The Year and being knighted. This year, he had pledged to win the Giro d’Italia, which he abandoned with a knee injury and chest infection, and then a second Tour de France but injury/illness forced him to miss out. Instead, he will be riding in the Tour of Poland tomorrow — not quite the glitz and glamour you’d expect of a cycling knight of the realm.

Usain Bolt

The fastest man on the planet is back in the capital and, oh, how the sport — and sprinting in particular — needs him after the recent doping scandals around Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell. He has not been at his best this year — that shows when even a Briton, James Desalou, is faster than him — but he usually comes good for the major championships. Life after the Games appears to have involved filming adverts with Richard Branson and working on his autobiography, Faster than Lightning, due out in September.

Allyson Felix

One of the undoubted stars inside the Olympic Stadium, like Bolt, Felix came away with a triple gold in the 200m and the 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams. This season, she has not been quite so quick — she is seventh fastest in the world over her favourite distance, the 200m, and eighth fastest over 400m. Expect here to come to the fore in London and Moscow in the ensuing weeks.

Jessica Ennis-Hill

Where last year, the poster girl of the Olympics had been omnipresent, this year she has been notable for her absence, most crucially from the track. Footage of her on television has been limited to those Santander adverts — she certainly outshines Jenson Button and the wooden Rory McIlroy. But, having made her return to action in Loughborough last Tuesday after an Achilles injury, she plans to run the 100m hurdles at this weekend’s Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games. However, the Olympic heptathlon champion must remain a doubt to compete at next month’s World Championships in Moscow, where she was hoping to regain the title she won in 2009. She is also now a married woman — hence the double-barrelled name — to long-term partner Andy Hill.

Wedding bells: Jessica Ennis receiving her MBE with partner Andy Hill

Kirani James

The softly-spoken Grenadian, still very much in the infancy of his running career despite being 400m Olympic champion, boasts the two fastest times for the distance this season, the best being 43.96 seconds in Paris earlier this month. He has lost just once this season, when beaten by LaShawn Merritt — the American who famously blamed a positive doping test on a male enhancement product — last month in Eugene in the United States. James made up for it by beating Merritt last month.

Stephen Kiprotich

The Olympic marathon champion was an intriguing gold medallist in that he was only Uganda’s second, and the first for 40 years. Added to that is the fact that when not pounding the streets he had previously been a prison warden, a job he aspires to return to. He has not quite lived up to the post-Olympic expectation with sixth place in the London Marathon, which ranks him 37th fastest in the world this year going into the worlds.

Chad le Clos

The South African made his name as the man who beat Michael Phelps, his idol, in the 200m butterfly, which led to his father Bert’s famous BBC interview with Clare Balding, which was laden with superlatives and fruity language. Le Clos and Phelps will get back in the water to go shark-cage diving in South Africa later this year — and Le Clos is scared of sharks. He had been struggling with a shoulder injury but is fit now and is preparing for the World Championships in Barcelona, where the swimming starts on Sunday.

Michael Phelps

The American’s swimming trunks have been packed away and with good reason, having achieved all he wanted to with 18 Olympic titles across three Games (Athens, Beijing and London). Shark diving aside, golf appears to have been the major passion both on and off the course — he is dating Golf Channel personality Win McMurry while also working on improving his handicap.

David Rudisha

One of the greatest athletes of all time did not get the attention of sprint kingBolt in London, even though he is effectively the Bolt of middle-distance running. The 800m Olympic champion and world record holder (1 min 40.91sec) is one of the big names missing from next month’s World Championships in Moscow because of a knee injury, which will leave him out of action until March next year — a punishing blow to him and organisers in Russia.

Ye Shiwen

The Chinese swimmer, who is just 17, made headlines for all the wrong reasons last year with doping insinuations, which she has vehemently rejected. She is currently in Barcelona preparing to become world champion in the individual medley over both 400m and 200m, events in which she was crowned world champion a year ago.

Anna Meares

After London, the Australian opted to spend time off her bike and initially it was unclear whether she would return aged 29 and with her nemesis, Victoria Pendleton, having retired from the velodrome. But Meares has since set her sights on the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and returned to action last month on home soil in Adelaide, arguing she would have returned sooner had it not been for a back complaint.

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