Gold Rush: Our Race to Olympic Glory - Series 1: Episode 1 - BBC

At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, Britain finished at an all-time low of 36th in the medal table. After this disappointment, a renaissance began with the aim of rebuilding the nation’s sporting prowess. Kickstarted by Conservative prime minister John Major, the project flushed Britain’s sporting system with millions of pounds from the new National Lottery. Athletes would give up their day jobs and be paid to become full-time sportsmen and women, the world's best coaches would be hired and state-of-the-art scientific techniques employed, all in the hope that Team GB would start winning medals at the Sydney games in 2000. With the world-beating American, Russian, German and Chinese teams in their sights, it was a tough task.
Told through the eyes of national heroes including Dame Kelly Holmes, Linford Christie, Darren Campbell, Jonathan Edwards and Sir Chris Hoy, the story of the Sydney games revolves around an incredible haul of gold, silver and bronze medals, with Britain climbing to 10th in the medal table.
In the middle of it all was the man who once managed Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards and who now had an audacious dream of Britain rising to the honoured position of one day hosting the games.
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[@Jabberstax]

John Major doesn't get enough credit for helping to turn around British sport.

[@martinconnors5195]

It wasn't Linfords fault. The first was accident, Atlanta officials should be ashamed of themselves

[@CoDWiiPS3Gameplay]

It doesn't matter if it's an "accident" or not. A false start is a false start. It's even stricter now. Look at Bolt being disqualified in 2011 after just one false start. The field got a warning in 1996 and then Linford made a mistake. It is what it is and he was rightly DQ'd even if it's unfortunate.

[@ayal9287]

The title of this should really be “How we just bought all these medals.” The money injection has destroyed what was special about the games. Taking part was more important than winning.

[@EurovisionSlovenia]

you think investing in sport is 'buying medals' 🤦‍♂

[@rohithraman6488]

@@EurovisionSlovenia Exactly what's wrong with it. When Germany got knocked out of euro 2000 the German football association invested in youth football more, created lots of non-club affiliated academies and it paid off with a world cup win in 2014. I don't see the problem

[@fordaru4180]

Stupid