Britain enjoyed its best Olympics for more than a century in Rio and the country has a new legion of gold medal heroes. But what does the future hold for them? Raymond Crisp reports

DOZENS of Team GB Olympians are set to return as heroes, bringing with them a record-breaking haul of 67 medals - including 27 gold.

They represent the pinnacle of sporting success and winning one is the dream of top athletes across the globe, but what is a gold medal worth to the lucky few who get to take one home?

One of the more obvious benefits is the commercial opportunity that can follow striking gold, and rising stars such as 100m breaststroke winner Adam Peaty, gymnast Max Whitlock and diver Jack Laugher could be poised to make millions through advertising, sponsorship deals, campaigns and media appearances.

Nigel Currie, a sports marketing consultant who is based in London, said commercial success was most likely to belong to "the athletes that do something very unique and different in one of the top sports".

He said: "If you look at the Mo Farahs and Jessica Ennis-Hills, they've been involved in campaigns that are still in operation now, four years after London, so some of those deals are probably six-figure deals on an annual basis.

"Adam Peaty is a classic - of someone who's got a great opportunity to do very well out of it because we haven't had a gold medallist in swimming for 28 years, so what he's done is very unique.

"There's a lack of recognisable successful male swimmers in the last few years so that, of itself, brings opportunities."

For some sports however, "the Olympics is their spotlight for the next four years, there's not a great amount of opportunities for them to be seen in major competitions because their sports don't get the coverage that the major sports like tennis and athletics get".

"It really is very dependant on the sport and, to a large extent, the individual personalities and their stories."

A guide written by the Olympic Museum Educational and Cultural Services goes on to say that while Olympic champions "often become superstars and role models" for many, a medal is "not always a guarantee of celebrity".

"If it is won in a little-known sport with low media coverage, a medal alone will not suffice to attract the interest of the sponsors or the general public," it reads.

However, Mr Currie warned of a potential "dilution of opportunities" in the event of a record medal haul.

The success of athletes including Mo Farah, Nicola Adams, Jason Kenny and Laura Trott spurred the nation on to a winning streak throughout the Games.

And the team collected 27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze medals, finishing second in the medals table, above China.

Victorious Olympic athletes didn’t always receive a gold medal for their acxhievements. At the ancient Olympic games the overall winner was crowned with kotinos – an olive wreath fashioned from wild olive leaves taken from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

Winners at the m1896 summer Olympics were given silver medals and the runner-up a bronze replica. Four years later the organisers decided to award cups or trophies in place of medals. The first Olympic Games to awarded gold medals was the following event in 1904, held at St Louis, Missouri, in the United States. Although the medals were solid gold they were considerably smaller than today’s awards.

However, with the cost of gold soaring the medals soon became too expensive. The last Games to award solid gold medalsd was the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden.

Today’s medals are required to be made from at least 92.5 per cent silver and must contain a minimum of six grams of gold. They are 60mm in diameter and 3mm thick (although Beijing’s medals were larger). Between 1928 and 1968 the design was the same. Since then every medal has had a custom design of the host city on the back.

In scrap-metal terms, a gold medal is worth a fraction of its commercial potential. A medal gilded with the minimum six grams of pure gold - as stipulated by the International Olympic Committee - would be worth just over £200, according to the latest gold prices from the London Bullion Market Association.

While most champions would consider it sacrilege to part with their accolades, others have sold theirs. American swimmer Anthony Ervin auctioned off the 50m freestyle gold medal he won in 2000 on eBay to raise funds for tsunami relief in south-east Asia. It reportedly fetched 17,101 US dollars (£13,276).