Is GB The New Super Power of World Sport?

It's official.

2012 is the greatest year in British sporting history. 

And the golden summer of 2012 was the most golden and glorious of summers for those flying the Union Jack. 

To be fair, after years of underperforming - including just 1 poultry gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta - Great Britain has finally arrived to the party as a genuine super power of sport. 

Let's face it, GB has always been a sleeping giant when it comes to sport. After all they pretty much gave the world many of the sports we love today, including football, the most followed sport of them all. They were the first country to make playing sport a professional career thanks to the football leagues established at the end of the Victorian period. 

The most prized contribution that GB gave to the world of sport: grit. 

Yet, for so long, British sport lacked that final spark which saw the likes of the United States, Australia, Germany and other countries steal the limelight. Perhaps, British sport had gotten too comfortable and complacent resting on its laurels that the country thought it could afford having invented and spread many of the world's sports. A case in point: England's FA was very late in joining FIFA and UEFA because it felt that it was too important to join them initially. 

But Great Britain no longer ruled half the world and lost its aura of invincibility. It needed to reinvent itself without the money that had now gone to the United States, Germany and China. What it did have in spates was a proud tradition and a semblance of patriotism that was waiting to flourish. Eventually, as Britain's economy blossomed in the 1990s and 2000s, the government realized that it needed to pour more money into youth and sports to nurture a new generation that would take the place of its athletes who had done the nation proud on their own stead, i.e. Sir Chris Roy, Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Kelly Holmes, Bradley Wiggins, etc. 

If Atlanta 1996 was the nadir, London 2012 has certainly marked the arrival of Britain as a sporting superpower. The evidence is there: yes the likes of Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton, Katherine Grainger all won gold but they belong to a different generation. What is really remarkable is that the likes of Tom Daley, Laura Trott, Katherine Copeland, etc. were all born in the 1990s and have plenty of Olympics to come. 

And beyond the Olympics, British teams and athletes have begun to really dominate - even if their teams aren't completely comprised of British born athletes, i.e. Chelsea and Manchester City. Ulsterman Rory McIlroy is clearly the golfer to beat in the field now. Andy Murray has finally broken Britain's long Grand Slam duck. English cricket is very much in contention for the no. 1 in the world spot in all forms of cricket and of course, it was English rugby which kicked off what has so far been a successful century for British sport with Jonny Wilkinson's winning drop goal against Australia nearly 10 years ago. 

So could the mighty Union Jack once again be on top of the world for years to come like it was 150 years ago? Probably, and Australian fans better get used to it.