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I was in the wardrobe praying as my boxer boy won me £11,000
Benedict Moore-Bridger, Evening Standard26.08.08
The family of a London boxer who claimed Olympic gold in Beijing have won £20,000 betting on his success, he revealed today.
James DeGale said his father and brother had won the cash after placing an 80-1 bet on him to beat Cuban Emilio Correa Jr.
The 22-year-old said he was relying on his father Leroy, 51, and mother Diane, 50, to keep his feet on the ground as he celebrated being part of the most successful British team for 100 years.
He said: "[My dad] won £11,000 - he had faith in me. It was an 80-1 bet. Hopefully he will give me a touch. I bet on me and [Bradley] Wiggins for a medal so I won £1,000 and my older brother Alex won £8,000. It's an added bonus."
Mr DeGale said his son's gold medal was never in doubt. He said: "I knew my boy would go all the way and I steamed in at 80-1. Ladbroke's were crying.
"I get physically sick watching him. During the finals I was in the wardrobe praying. Each time I heard them shouting I would poke my head out and ask what the score was."
Mrs DeGale said: "He has made the whole family so proud. I can't express how I feel."
James, from Hammersmith, said the British team's celebrations started immediately after the closing ceremony: "There was a massive party outside the team's headquarters in the village, with a marquee, beers, everyone chilling, drinking. Some people didn't go to sleep.
"On the plane I just sat back, sipping champers - it was fantastic. The next couple of weeks there's going to be a lot more drinking and partying."
He said it would now be hard to turn down a £1million offer to turn professional, and has been contacted by boxing promoter Frank Warren and former fighter Barry McGuigan, but said it was still a dream to defend his medal in London 2012.
"I am from London and it would be absolutely fantastic to win another gold medal in my home city.
"I need to speak to my family, my coach Terry Edwards. The money has to be right - if I could get a mortgage, a nice car, it would be hard to turn down £1million. I've done everyone proud, I've done GB proud - it is going to be hard to refuse."
The rest of Team GB were today getting used to normal life after being mobbed by hundreds of fans as they landed at Heathrow.
Britain's medallists flew back club class on the specially chartered British Airways flight.
Gold medallists including Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington and sailor Ben Ainslie were given first-class seats.
The jumbo - renamed Pride after the Team GB Mascot - was decorated with the message "Proud to bring our British heroes home" emblazoned on the fuselage.
Cyclist Wiggins - winner of two Beijing golds - said: "To come back to this reception is phenomenal. When I left it was all 'recession' - now we've come back to a country over-whelmed by Olympic success.
"What an incentive to do it again in four years, if not better."
The athletes will be given a victory parade in London in October.
● London-born Natasha Danvers, who won bronze in the 400 metres hurdles, said she hoped sport could help to curb the escalating youth violence in the capital.
She said: "You need people out there doing something. My race, all the training, would be worth it if someone then says 'maybe I don't need to be on the streets acting like a mad person'."
Reader views (1)
What a waste of time and money the Olympics are, the numerous things this money in London that could have been spent on something useful. It's a disgrace, I know Blair's heart must have sunk when London was got the 2012 Olympics and the waste of money this was going to generate. Who gives a fig about for two weeks of wound up automatons jumping about in a jumped circus, what a bore and waste of time, we're NOT interested, spend the money on a decent gallows and Police to arrest drug dealers illegal immigrants instead.
Today we will have west Indian pearly kings and queers are the pearly queens, it is disgraceful.
- John Shaw, London, UK
