WITH Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 now underway, the Echo celebrates Dorset and West Hampshire’s Olympic medal winners of the past.

Dating back to as far as 1900, we bring you the list of the athletes we either know about or remember.

How many other medal winners are you aware of? Let us know in the comments section below

Ben Ainslie

Silver in 1996, gold in 2000, gold in 2004, gold in 2008, gold in 2012 

 

Great Britains Ben Ainslie celebrates on the podium after winning the Gold medal in the Finn class sailing in Weymouth, during day nine of the London 2012 Olympics. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday August 5, 2012. See PA story Olympics

Ben Ainslie

 

He’s Britain’s most successful sailing Olympian ever with four gold medals around his neck.

Ben Ainslie, who lived in Lymington for a large part of his sailing career, won his first Olympic gold at Sydney 2000 in the Laser sailing class.

Ainslie put down an Olympic marker in 1996 in Atlanta and went on to better it four years later in Australia.

He repeated the trick in 2004 in Athens, this time in the larger Finn class. He then went on to get gold in the same class in 2008 in Beijing and London in 2012.

On May 19, 2012, he was the first of 8,000 Olympic torch carriers when he began the 70-day journey through the UK from Land’s End.

The sailing superstar was knighted on March 7, 2013, by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace and was awarded the freedom of Lymington later in the year in recognition of his outstanding achievements.

Ainslie won 11 golds and four bronze medals in the World Championships during his career and was awarded the title of British Yachtsman of the year on seven occasions.

He now lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife, Sky Sports presenter Georgie Thompson, and their daughter Bellatrix.

Charles Bennett

Gold in 1900, silver in 1900

 

Charles Bennett

Charles Bennett

 

Charles Bennett was the first British track and field athlete to become Olympic champion when he won the 1500 metres at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.

He also took home a gold in the 5000-meter steeplechase and a silver in the 4000-metre steeplechase.

Bennett, who worked as a train driver in Shapwick, Dorset, lived in Bournemouth - a part of Hampshire at that time.

Percy Hodge

Gold in 1920

 

Percy Hodge

Percy Hodge

 

British Athlete Percy Hodge had a great time at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp when he took home a gold in the 3000-metre steeplechase.

He also ran in the heats of the 3000-metre team event in which Great Britain won a silver medal.

Hodge lived in Bournemouth for a large part of his life.

Hannah Mills 

Silver in 2012, gold in 2016

 

Hannah Mills, Womens 470 class Sailing, announced as Team GBs female flagbearer ahead of the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony overlooking Enoshima Harbour in Japan. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB..

 Hannah Mills. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB.

 

She’s one of the most decorated British Olympic sailors of all time and is hoping to add more medals to her collection this summer.

Hannah Mills won gold at Rio 2016 and silver at London 2012 in the 470 class alongside Saskia Clark, and will now go for gold with teammate Eilidh McIntyre.

She is flag bearer for Tokyo 2020 alongside rower Moe Sbihi, who won gold in the coxless four in Rio and bronze in the men’s eight in London.

Mills is the first female sailor to become a flag bearer.

She has also won three gold, three silver and two bronze in the World Championships and three silvers in the European Championships.

Mike Wheeler

Bronze in 1956

Mike Wheeler was a British athlete that competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

Wheeler took home the bronze medal for his final-quarter participation in the 4x400 metres relay event.

The Bournemouth man retired from athletics in 1966.

Peter Wilson

Gold in 2012

 

Great Britains Peter Wilson with his gold medal after winning the Double Trap Mens Final at the Royal Artillery Barracks, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday August 2, 2012. See PA story OLYMPICS Shooting. Photo credit should read:

Peter Wilson

 

Peter Wilson grew up on a farm in Dorset with his parents and studied at the t think I’ve been sober for four months!” laughed the double-trap shooter.

Wilson only began competing in 2006 and was junior champion in Europe within just six months. He only took up shooting in the first place after dislocating his shoulder, forcing him away from his favoured sports at the time - cricket and squash.

Wilson received a whole year’s funding from his parents, all of which pushed him towards the London games and that coveted gold medal.

Wilson was rewarded for his efforts on the Olympic stage, not just with a gold medal but also an MBE from the monarchy.

Bethany Woodward

Silver 2012, bronze in 2012

 

Great Britains Bethany Woodward celebrates winning Silver during the Womens 200m - T37 Final at the Olympic Stadium, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday September 5, 2012. See PA story PARALYMPICS Athletics. Photo credit should

Bethany Woodward

 

IT was one of the great moments of the London 2012 Paralympics.

And for Ringwood runner Bethany Woodward taking silver in the T37 200m was the result of seven years of training.

She had already had the thrill of becoming a world champion when she won gold in the 400m World Championships in New Zealand.

Woodward took second place at the Anniversary Games in 2013 - the event to mark one year since the nation was gripped by Olympic and Paralympic fever - setting a personal best in the T37 100m race. She also took another silver at the World Championships in Lyon, France, in the 200m that year. 

The athlete, who has cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects movement and coordination, developed her love of athletics when she was growing up in the New Forest.

She grew up in Ringwood, where her parents looked after eight children with various disabilities in a Camphill Community.

These are communities for people with disabilities based on Christian ideals.

Bethany’s parents, Tim and Georgina Woodward, looked after eight children with disabilities and she grew up alongside them.

They didn’t have television and she spent much of her childhood outdoors running around the New Forest and helping her father look after a small woodland.

She took up athletics at secondary school, by which point her parents had moved to another Camphill Community in St Albans.

In 2008 her family moved back to the New Forest and her training stepped up a gear. 

After the 2012 Olympics, Woodward went on to a silver and a bronze medal in the European Championships in Swansea in 2014 as well as a silver in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in the same year.

Bournemouth Echo: