Wales: Olympic Dreams

The dizzying high point of a career in sport.

24 competitors from Wales are about to live the Olympic dream.

It means the world to me.

It's a dream come true to have been selected to go.

Since I was this high, it's always been about the Olympics.

I'm going to be incredibly proud to be wearing this kit.

You actually think, "I've done it, I've made it to the top stage."

It's a little bit crazy to say I'm going to be an Olympian.

This is the story of life on the road from home

to the 2016 Games in Brazil.

That's you done now, yeah.

I wish!

And the ultimate Rio reward.

Any athlete's dream is to win an Olympic gold medal.

It's something that I've dreamt of since I was a little girl.

I'm going for a medal. I want to be on the podium.

It's the biggest event of my life.

-Are you going to win gold?

-Definitely.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

All over the world at this very moment, there are athletes

training and preparing for next year's Olympic Games in Montreal.

It really is the highest accolade any athlete can win in their

career, a gold medal at an Olympics.

This one is the first won by a Welsh woman

at the 1912 Stockholm Games.

Irene Steer Nicholson from Cardiff

in the 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay.

Mrs Nicholson, do you remember very much about those Games?

I know when we won,

they played the national anthem

and we had to parade around the bath, you know.

They hoisted the Union Jack and things, it was all very thrilling.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Hartley at the last leg takes the bronze for Great Britain.

Since then, golds for Welsh women have been rare.

Bronze medals...

This in hockey in Barcelona but it took 96 years for

a second Welsh woman to win gold.

-COMMENTATOR:

-At the front, Cooke takes it.

Nicole Cooke is the Olympic road race champion.

It was probably half a second afterwards.

I looked right, looked left, there's no-one there.

Then the confirmation that I'd won and that was just amazing.

But just four years for the next one,

after Beijing came the London Games.

-COMMENTATOR:

-You little beauty!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And a teenage kicking superstar from North Wales is the Olympic champion.

Jade Jones - FROM Flint, as hard as it.

I only came into the national team in 2010 so it was literally

two years before the Olympics and no-one really expected me

to even go to the Olympics.

You know, I did really well that year, took the opportunity by the

hands and literally, like six months to go, I'm going to the Olympics.

I just went for it and it paid off.

Only four Welsh competitors have won gold at more than one Games.

No Welsh woman has ever done it.

If London happened in a bit of a rush, there is

a more clearly defined sense of purpose about making history in Rio.

Ever since London, my sights are straight on the Olympics

because for me they're the pinnacle and my goal is always the Olympics.

It has been hard with motivation.

You know, I'm really hungry for a gold medal here and, you know,

hopefully I have come into peak just in time again

and I really want to win this.

On the attack, same lead with this and cover

and flick on the chest pads. Yeah?

Try and gap stop within your body.

OK?

There is this intense driven focus that she has

that not a lot of athletes do have.

She just backs it up every time she goes on the court

and she is feared across the globe, to be honest.

The one person you don't want in your quarter of the draw

is Jade Jones.

Since London, there have been changes in taekwondo.

It's a totally new system that we haven't been used to going on.

It's a lot harder to score.

Basically, we're like practising the new game,

pushing people out and also go in high and punches.

We have to totally change our game a little bit.

A lot of techniques that we normally score with, don't score any more.

-Are you going to win gold?

-Definitely.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Just that confident?

No, obviously, you know, I'm not, "I'm going to win gold."

It's going to be so hard, don't get me wrong.

There are eight people in my way that could win the gold medal

but I'm confident if I'm relaxed and my day

and literally if I go after the medal like I did in London,

I'm confident I definitely can go there and get the gold

but it's just about being mentally on it on the day

and literally going after my medal.

To join the select band of multiple Olympic gold medallists,

the first Welsh woman in a club exclusive to Welsh men.

Paulo Radmilovic, four golds in the pool in a 22-year career

starting in 1904.

In 2008, Tom James with his first rowing gold in Beijing.

-COMMENTATOR:

-France coming up for the bronze but

Gold medal, Great Britain, wonderfully done.

And a second in London 2012.

Half a lap to go...

At the same games, Geraint Thomas with his second title

in the team pursuit.

The gold medal is Great Britain's.

It's a new world record

and Great Britain have won the gold medal.

Geraint will race again in Rio.

This time out in the open,

part of the five-man men's road race team.

Inside the velodrome, the gold mine and there are Welsh cyclists

looking to keep the medals rolling in.

Ciara Horne and Elinor Barker will race together in the team pursuit.

It literally is a dream coming true.

I'm sure you hear a lot of people saying that

but you know, not long ago,

I had a folder of all bits and bobs

of paper cuttings and what have you.

I used to make scrapbooks of the Olympics when I was younger.

Today has been the day that it's all become real, I suppose.

Now that we're actually getting the kit

and looking the part.

Seeing what we're going to race in.

Yeah, it's very exciting.

Ciara used to be a promising swimmer and triathlete and then as

a student, she took a break from sport.

A short break.

In my second year, I just thought this isn't me,

a life without sport, I want that Olympic dream.

I felt completely lost and I had a chat with my dad and

he was like, "You were always a leg-dominant swimmer".

I was always good at kick and breaststroke was my event.

He was like, "Have you thought about cycling?"

I was like, "Oh, I don't know."

I didn't really like it when I did triathlon but I'll give it a go

because I needed to lose weight anyway, to be honest, after a year of drinking at uni.

Then, er...

I literally was hooked.

I absolutely loved it and that kind of all or nothing trait with me,

I just became obsessed with it and I've not looked back since.

She looked like she had an engine.

She's athletic, always working hard and

so that's where the conversation started, really.

The talk was mostly about power

and what to do with it.

It's a little bit like putting a Porsche engine in a Mini.

It's going to struggle to go down the straight in a straight line.

We knew the raw power was there but it was about then

putting the package together.

Suddenly Rio is here.

First and foremost, I want to be on that start line and I want to

be in the qualifying line-up, the strongest four will race.

That team, regardless of who's in it,

has a potential to be on the top step of the podium.

In the men's squad,

Cardiff's Owain Doull will also be competing in his first Olympics.

The men's team pursuit,

packed with stars, one of Team GB's specialist events.

They'll be going for their third consecutive gold.

They're going to Rio with some of the best team pursuiters in the world.

Also with the experience as well,

people likes Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Ed Clancy.

I think experience will carry them a long way.

I think we're going there to win ultimately.

I think seeing what the other lads have done in previous years,

the Olympics, you know,

in the team pursuit specifically, is massive.

I think that's kind of what we're aiming towards and that's

what we're hoping for, as well.

Becky James, the final Welsh cyclist.

It's been a tough time for the World Champion of 2013.

She'd missed London 2012 with appendicitis and then came

shoulder and knee injuries and illness - a cancer scare.

Just to be in Rio is a triumph.

Becky has had a very difficult couple of years.

At some point, they weren't sure whether she would ever get over the injury.

It just shows the real grit,

the determination that Becky has got for cycling.

Touch wood, everything has been great for over a year now

and I've been training hard.

I've no problems and everything is in the past now.

All I can do is look forward.

She's not going to take part.

I think she's done well to get there.

I think they'll be behind her now.

It'll be, "Right, how do I win?"

Cycling isn't the only sport where Welsh women outnumber

Welsh men in the Great Britain team.

Triathlon...

..where there are two former world champions and serious

Olympic contenders in Rio.

Helen Jenkins and Non Stanford.

Of a team that only consists of three,

to have two of them being Welsh women is fairly fantastic

and I think testimony to Welsh sport

and the structures that are in place,

as we were developing as young athletes.

Every Olympics, I think we've had a Welsh triathlete since 2000,

so that's pretty good, to have done that for Wales.

To have two in the team,

it's nice to be a part of it.

There is a cautionary tale.

Four years ago Helen Jenkins was in the form of her life before

the London Games but suddenly she fell prey to injury.

2012 turned into a struggle simply to make it to the start line.

The whole build-up to London was just so stressful and I went

from being one of the favourites...

I went in as one of the favourites and I just wasn't able to get

anywhere close to my potential.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Jenkins out of the medals, down in fifth.

This has been the hardest ten weeks of my career.

I had an injury and just...

It was just really hard to get to the start line.

I'm actually amazed I was in contention for that long.

I haven't been able to get all my running in.

Yeah, I gave it everything and the crowd helped so much.

I just want to thank my team who got me to the start line and

everyone out there shouting.

I gave it everything. I'm sorry, it wasn't a medal.

It was hard to cope with at the time and I look back now and...

Yeah, I'm over the disappointment of it

and I can just take away the positives.

The crowd support was amazing and I'm proud of the performance

I put in under extremely tough circumstances.

The Olympic ordeal is a family thing.

Helen's coach and husband is Marc Jenkins, also a triathlete.

Athens 2004.

-COMMENTATOR:

-This is quite a remarkable scene, isn't it?

You talk about the Olympic spirit, don't you?

This is being personified in the young man from Great Britain.

The coach who crashed in '04 is now working to get his wife

ready for 2016.

How do you feel running downhill?

Get your legs moving OK?

Yeah, not great.

-It will get better.

-Yeah.

We work as a team.

If Marc is making breakfast and stuff,

then I will be doing washing-up and it's just all the little

things take a lot less when there's two of us.

I enjoy having him to train with and it just makes the trip

so much easier, us both being there.

It's what we've always done.

If you think about it, and analyse all the time we spend together,

people would go mad and think,

"How do you spend that much time with your wife?"

We're best friends. We can't imagine being without each other.

I don't what I'd do. I try and make it so she can't function without me.

Rio will be Helen's third Olympics.

For Non Stanford, they are the first but this has been

a long time in the planning.

2004, Non at a training camp led by double Olympic gold medallist,

Dame Kelly Holmes.

Keep it going, that's excellent. Get in there.

She's just an inspirational woman.

It just shows you how I can achieve my dreams.

She just a normal person like anybody else but she

has worked hard for what she's got and I think if I could achieve

anything near what she's achieved, it'd be absolutely amazing.

I've dreamt about going to the Olympic Games since I was nine years old

and it's only taken me to the age of 27 but, yeah,

I'm obviously really excited and can't wait to put on the

British kit and get out there and hopefully do the team proud.

Non has already raced the Rio course.

She came second in the test event last year.

The only reason I'm going to Rio is with hopes of winning a medal.

Erm...

Ideally gold.

I think anybody that stands in that start line is hoping to walk

away with that gold medal.

Realistically, anything can happen in a triathlon.

And although I'm going there to win gold,

I would pretty happy to walk away with a medal of any colour.

London was all about the gold, or getting a medal,

and I think this time round really

all I'm focusing on is lining up fit. If I can do that and

put my best performance out there, I think I'll come away happy,

whatever the outcome.

There is the potential for two Welsh triathlon medals.

It'll be a tough day.

It'll be really hard.

But, I think, me and Helen are tough athletes.

So, you know, never say never.

For Non and Helen, the Olympics will be won and lost on the waters

and shores of Rio.

For the track and field athletes, here where the superstars rule.

-COMMENTATOR:

-It's gold for Usain Bolt.

And a new World Record,

I do not believe it.

Absolutely brilliant.

Running down the same track will be Seren Bundy-Davies,

the only Welsh athlete here.

She'll race in the individual 400 metres and in the 4x400 relay,

part of a team that won bronze in last year's

World Championships in Beijing.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Seren Bundy-Davies holding on for bronze for Great Britain.

I always love winning the relay. We've got such a strong team.

It's kind of different because you're running individually all

year round and you have to come together as a team in the relay.

We seem to know that when it matters so I'm hoping we can progress

as a team this year.

Also in the relay team, Christine Ohuruogu,

who won Olympic gold in 2008.

She was a massive help in Beijing.

She brought her calmness and experience to the relay team.

You kind of noticed it when we were in the relay.

Everyone was just really confident and calm and that showed

in our performance, we were so composed.

You need Christine Ohuruogu to be at her best.

Anyika Onuora, Seren herself and maybe Emily Diamond as well

who's running particularly well this year.

They proved that last year by winning the bronze at the

World Championships in Beijing.

I don't see no reason why they can't repeat that performance.

Seren's improved this year.

It's just whether or not Chrissy O can step up and get

through her injury patch.

In the individual 400, it's all about gaining experience,

preparing for the future.

Seren is a very mentally focused, driven and determined person.

Do I fear she'll be fazed by the pressures of competing

against some of the top guys in the world around her and seeing them walking around, back and forth?

No, I don't think she'll be fazed by that.

My aim's to make the final and then see where I can go from there.

My individual medal hopes will be kind of

Commonwealth Games 2018 and then on to Tokyo.

I don't feel like there's a huge amount of pressure on myself.

You put a lot of pressure on yourself.

I don't really feel the pressure from other people.

I just want to run well and run to the best of my ability

and, yeah, I'll be happy if I do that.

Here's that trend again, more women from Wales than men.

For the first time, overall in the GB Olympic team

with the 24 athletes selected,

15 are women.

You know, there's always talk in the media about how women are

underrepresented or it's always a battle for women's sport.

Now, all of a sudden in Wales, women's sport is the driving

force and that's maybe a cultural shift over the last few years.

Seeing sport as

a career for women

is something which hasn't always

been the case.

I think women are taking that opportunity and making the

most of it.

What we're genuinely seeing is the results of probably

ten, 15 years of government and lottery investment in

a scheme to get girls to be the best they can be.

It's been targeted.

We've always known there's been a gap between the boys and the girls.

You have to do something very specific.

There's been significant investment from school sport

for the last ten to 15 years and we are really reaping the rewards.

Men in the minority,

but among them still a number of genuine medal hopes.

Cardiff boxer, Joe Cordina.

Joe won a semifinal at a European qualification event for the

Olympics in April.

A culmination of six years' work to go to the Games.

Joe Cordina is through to Rio 2016.

The main thing for me was just getting that qualifying spot and

then put the pressure of qualifying behind me and set

a new goal which is to bring back an Olympic,

an Olympic gold medal back to Cardiff.

I believe I can beat anyone on my day.

I truly believe that I can outbox them completely and if I have

to get drawn into a fight, then so be it.

This is my father, Joe senior.

Big, little Joe.

Like I say, he was rugby, football mad

and rugby was his main sport and loved it.

I never ever thought in my mind for him to box in any shape or

form until one day he's seen a couple of boys running

and he said, "What are they doing, Dad?"

I said, "Well, they're boxing."

He said, "Can I have a go at it because the rugby season was over

"just to keep fit."

I said, "No-one can help you in there" and that was it.

You know, he made his decision to box.

I started going when I was 15 or 16.

To be honest with you, I didn't want to fight.

I just wanted to say, "Yeah, I'm a boxer.

"I box, I go to a gym."

So I had one and then one to lead two.

Two led to three and so on.

Hello, cheeky, cheeky.

There's daddy.

Come, dad.

This is my daughter, Sophia Grace.

This is doing nothing for your boxing image.

I don't care. I don't care.

This is why I do it.

I push myself in the gym every day and she's the reason.

Before is was just front but now I've got to do it for her

and make a better life for her.

This is what it takes.

It can also really take it out of you.

David Davies, unforgettable in the swimming marathon

of Beijing 2008.

COMMENTATOR: He is catching them over the last 15 metres.

Davies! There's not enough time and van der Weijden

is the Olympic champion.

David Davies gets silver.

That has hurt David Davies.

It's really hurt him.

David, are you all right?

I'm fine now, I think so.

That of every medal that Great Britain has won at these Games,

has to be the toughest and the biggest effort of anybody.

I was heading towards sinking

because the last part of it, I don't think I knew what was going on.

I was delirious. I was all over the place.

Give me a minute I think I'll be over the moon with getting

another medal in the Olympics because that was fantastic.

I just remember watching David Davies's swim,

a fellow Welshman and I was...

He was like ultimate goals.

I want to achieve what he had achieved.

It was nice for me to follow his back,

he was from Cardiff, he trained with the same coach

and then in 2010 I managed to actually train with him

for a couple of years and we both managed to make London.

That was inspiring for me and it definitely kept me going.

They'll be four Welsh swimmers in Rio.

Including Chloe Tutton who in March came out of nowhere at the

British Championships.

It's a new British record, 2:22:34.

We knew going in there was something special was going to happen.

It was just a matter of doing it and to come away with

a three-second PB and to have qualified for the Olympic Games,

it's just a dream come true.

I'm really going to be living in the moment and just taking it all in.

This is my dream. I'm so glad to have achieved it.

Ieuan Lloyd was a teenager when he swam at London 2012.

In Rio, he's the one man Welshman in the minority.

As the only man, I feel a bit of responsibility is on

me to do well and the three girls are pretty good themselves.

A really good bunch and hopefully we can inspire

the future Welsh generation.

The freestyle grace of Jazz Carlin.

She missed London 2012 through illness but is going to her

first Olympics now.

After missing out on the Olympics four years ago, I knew this year would be a special year.

I couldn't have expected the pressure and everything

that I put on myself. It's really been quite a stressful time

but to finally book that place on the team and to be here today at the kitting out day,

it's just finally sinking in and finally thinking

I can't believe it, I'm going to be an Olympian.

The kit launch media day is one of the stepping stones on the

way to Rio, a day in the bright lights.

Different from this.

There is so much more of this.

This is what it takes.

The predawn start to the days of training that stretch out endlessly.

We're still in this building until about 8pm tonight, that's when Jazz will finish.

She's got a 13-hour day and effectively four sessions to

complete before then. It's full-on.

Three, two, one. Let's go.

Come on.

Breathe. OK, working hard. Right to the end.

Ultimately, we need to leave no stone unturned

in our pursuit of that medal for her.

She needs to be fit, she needs to be strong and powerful.

It's a real combination of different attributes.

Three, two, one. Yes.

Well done.

-That's you done now, yeah?

-Day done, finished.

I wish!

Jazz got in the pool at eight o'clock this morning and she'll

swim until about 10am this morning

and she'll probably cover 7,500 metres

She went 16,000 metres yesterday and this week she's probably going to

average between 70 and 80,000 for the week.

Swimming, it's a tough sport and when you're doing the amount

of metres that Jazz is doing it takes a special person.

Not everybody can do it and I don't mean physically, I mean mentally.

I've just finished the gym and swim for the morning.

I'm having a bit of breakfast,

-refuelling and then back to bed, I think.

-Back to bed?!

Yeah, back to bed. I always need to recover between sessions.

I've got another swim and gym later on.

It really is a full-on day and I need to get as much rest in as possible.

Training here, everything's organised.

We always get sent a weekly plan of what we've got to do.

It is quite a full-on day.

I mean, I am quite tired a lot of the time.

It's not the most glamorous lifestyle but, you know what,

I wouldn't have it any other way. I love what I do.

She's had a tough day today.

We've just done a lot of race pace in the session.

We've got a race model that we would like her to do in Rio.

We are breaking that 800 down and tonight she set all of her

race pace on target.

How's that coming, Jazz, all right?

Last 100? Spot on.

So it's 7pm now.

We're at the end of a long training day and Jazz is in doing her key

strength focus session.

We'll be here until going on 8pm,

probably be doing a good hour and a half of S&C work.

Two more.

Squeeze up.

That's fine. This is a long day.

Effectively it's a 13-hour training day.

Jazz will be back home probably about 8:30pm, refuelling,

kind of light relaxing before starting it all again tomorrow.

This is what it takes to make it to the Olympics

and compete with the best in the world.

Everyone in that pool was going to be going for a medal

and I'm not going to shy around it.

I am going for a medal, I want to be on the podium.

It's the biggest event of my life and I'm just going to make sure

that I'm at my best then and obviously if my best

performance gets me on the podium, that'll be an incredible feeling.

They've made it to Rio.

Those that were once inspired can now become inspirational.

I guess I forget that people might be looking up to

me now and the way I used to identify with my role models,

maybe young girls are doing that too and, you know, if I can

inspire more girls to just participate and take up any

sport, especially triathlon, is fab.

I remember being a young girl myself and watching people like

Kelly Holmes on the TV and, you know,

that's what inspired me to want to go and get a gold medal.

To think I'm one of them role models now,

people are looking up to me, it's just lovely.

I remember straight after the Olympics I went on holiday and there

was like little kids coming up to me around the swimming pool,

showing me their kicks and, you know,

it's just amazing how you can inspire people across the world.

I think it shows that we are a smaller country but I don't think

that needs to stop you or hold you back in any way.

Every Welsh athlete that's going has had

a different route there but it just shows that wherever you're from, or

whatever background, you can aim for the Olympics and you can get there.

Colin Jackson's got the silver.

Nicole Cooke is the Olympic road race champion.

The British are coming, the British are coming

and Great Britain have won the gold medal.

You little beauty!