Starmer: I would rather Team GB top Olympic medal table than Arsenal win Premier League

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he would rather see Team GB top the medal table at the Olympics than Arsenal win the Premier League.

The passionate Gunners fan was put on the spot by Laura Woods, who is presenting Eurosport and discovery+ coverage from Paris.

A politician’s answer perhaps, but the Emirates season-ticket holder passed up the hypothetical chance to see his side be crowned champions.

“You can’t do this to me, this is a really really difficult one but I’m going to go for Team GB because the whole country is rooting for them, the whole country,” Starmer told Woods.

Starmer went viral after refusing to wear a poncho at Friday night’s rain-soaked Opening Ceremony on the River Seine.

The Prime Minister has been taking in the live action on the first day of sporting competition in the French capital, including judo, although his own sporting prowess lies on the five-a-side football field and in his youth, the athletics track.

“I used to run the 1500m for the county and for the school,” said Starmer. “I don’t run now, I play football still but not running. I used to run the 1500m three and three quarter laps, the psychology of when to break, hearing the bell and then leaving until those last 200m and then opening it up.... I can still do it in my head, but I certainly couldn’t do it on the track.’

Team GB have already won medals in cycling and diving at the Games, with the latter one of Starmer’s personal favourites.

“When we were at London (2012), the one we loved was the diving,” said Starmer. “To go and watch it live, I’ve watched it many times on the television, but to watch it live and see the technique was extraordinary.

‘But being honest I will watch any sport, which is why the biggest thing for me is the Olympics. Like the whole country, I’ll be like, I’m just going to watch five minutes because one of our athletes is performing and then an hour later, I’ve been drawn into it.”

Quango UK Sport have invested £314.5 million of Lottery and Exchequer funding in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the last four years.

Government funding for the next Olympic cycle is expected to be reduced.

In Paris, Team GB hope to finish as high as third in the medal table and are aiming for between 50 and 70 medals.

Starmer said of the ambition: “I really hope so, we’ve got a great team, so I think so – there’s a sense of knowing they’ve done the work they know they have to get into that special place, they know the whole of the country is watching and absolutely rooting for them so they’ll have all that support but it’s tough, it’s really tough.’

“We punch well above our weight at Team GB and there’s a reason for that – it’s because of the hard work that’s gone in and just the feeling here of performance and it’s brilliant.”

Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics