Tomorrow marks exactly a year to the date that Gemma Gibbons clinched British Judo’s first silver medal win for Great Britain in more than a decade, a feat only accomplished by her coach and mentor Kate Howey. Gemma did this in spectacular style and grace, despite a broken thumb and fighting in a higher weight category than she was used to. But few can also forget the emotional tribute she made to her late mother in the semi final – a moment has become one of the iconic moving images of the Games.

“It really has been an incredible 12 months. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to check I am not dreaming,”

This is the view of Judo heroine Gemma Gibbons, looking back a year to the date she won Olympic silver in front of a home crowd in her native London on 2 August 2012.

A lot has happened since that time, as Gemma attests: “It is only recently that I have been able to look back and reflect on exactly what I have done and seen. The Games, being injured, getting married, moving from London to Scotland. I’ve just bounced from one thing to the next. There was no time to really reflect and to process all the things I have done and all the people I have met.

“Winning the silver was an amazing feeling. For most that would have been it, job done, pinnacle reached, but still feel I have so much more to achieve. To get an Olympic medal was incredible given I hadn’t even won a British Championships. There is so much for me to do – I have never won a medal in a world championships or European championships and I still have to become an Olympic Champion. ”

Now though, a year on, she is able to reflect, “It was different to what I thought it would be. The Olympic Village is like a little town. For the first week, the atmosphere was really tense but as it went through the competition, it started to lighten up,” she said.

 “It was great to take part in the Olympics in my home city too and medal. I still can’t quite  believe it. There is a small part of me that wishes I had got gold but to beat the level of  athletes that I did to get silver was an amazing experience.

 “The most satisfaction of all the fights I fought was probably beating Dutch-girl Marhinde  Verkerk of The Netherlands in the Quarter Finals at London 2012. I think it was the best fight  because we have actually got a bit of rivalry at a junior level. I had lost against her at the  Junior Worlds and the Europeans, but at the Olympics, we had another battle and I came out  on top. Not only that, but this was the point that I knew I was also in with a chance of an  Olympic medal.

Closing her eyes, the atmosphere, sights and sounds, all come flooding back  to Gemma.

 “For the first week and a half before the competition, you could just feel the tension around  the campsite, no one had competed and it was really, really tense,” she said. But then, came  the women’s -78kg competition, and Gemma, who before the Games was ranked in the low  30’s, rushed through the rounds towards that epic Olympic final where she took silver.

 When she learned of her result, Gemma paid an emotional tribute to her late mum Jeanette who died of Leukemia when Gemma was only 16.

 She cast her head and eyes to the heavens and mouthed “thank you mum”.

 Although this  was a private moment, it was captured by the cameras and beamed around  the world to millions.

Getting used to fame

For a girl whose Twitter account now boasts over 28,000 followers, it is hard to believe that she actually started the Olympics with only a couple of hundred fans.

Since London 2012, Gemma has had to get used to the fame that Olympic stardom has brought with it. Yet she remains steadfastly committed to the very thing which brought her to fame in the first place, judo.

“As a result of winning a silver medal, I am now a grade A funded athlete. Of course, I do worry if I don’t perform or due to a long period out for injury funding may be cut, but because of the Olympics I am fortunate to have a lot of recognition. This has brought chances to do appearances for money, but I don’t ever want that to take over the judo.

“My main focus is, and always has been, judo.” “I think I have a good balance at the moment. I have an agent to handle appearance and media requests and I am sponsored by EDF Energy, so the money they support me with, just means that if I am injured or not able to compete for any other reason I am able to sustain myself.”

Since shooting to superstardom and winning her medal, Gemma has rubbed shoulders with many famous people, including the Prime Minister David Cameron. During the Games however, Gemma herself was starstruck by one of her own heroines, Serena Williams.

“Now she is one hell of an athlete,” she said. “I had seen her earlier win in the doubles at Wimbledon and then was able to see her on the court at the Olympics. That was very special.” And after the Games, Gemma took a much needed rest due to injury.

“After the games, I had an operation on my broken thumb and was off from competing for around three months, so I was able to have a break and you deserve it too because everyone trains so hard for the Games and the effort that is put in is so immense. Regardless of whether you have an injury or not, you need that downtime.

“I am not sure how I got through that final with a broken thumb, I definitely pay tribute to the power of adrenaline. Ask me to do that again and I would never be able to do that.”

 Another big event for Gemma was her wedding to fellow Olympian and judoka Euan Burton  earlier this year, while recovering from another judo-related injury – a broken wrist.

 Asked whether she was as nervous on the big day as she was at the Games, she said: “Yes  and no, it was a different type of nerves. Before I fight I feel sick with anxiety, but before my wedding was happily excited. To be truthful, I think I was more nervous about the first dance as I have two left feet.

 “Originally I thought we were going to get married in October next year after the  Commonwealth Games, but then I broke my wrist and then Euan said to me, why don’t we  get married earlier as the only reason we were waiting was because we had so many  competitions. So I said yes. Of course her wedding, a few weeks after another Olympic  golden girl Jess Ennis (now Ennis-Hill), was also the subject of attention due to her new found  fame.

 “I never dreamed of being in a glossy magazine, never mind having my wedding in Hello!”  she laughed.

 There was also her move to Edinburgh…

 “I am a London girl at heart and forever will be, ” she said. “But I am really happy in  Edinburgh. It is a really beautiful city. It is a lot less fast paced than London and I really do  feel like it is now my home, you can get to everything easily and it feels very safe and  friendly.”

Gemma moved in with her husband after leaving Charlton, where she had lived with her mum her whole life until she died.

Gemma’s courage and spirit, as well as her pledge to honour her late mother’s memory, struck a chord with many of the millions of viewers who tuned in on that Olympic final day. Who could fail to be moved by her emotional tribute – an instant that has become one of the most replayed emotional moments of the entire Olympic Games and happened in front of a television audience of more than 4.5 million people on the Thursday at 4pm.

Words by Donna Richardson, Photos British Judo.