Gemma Gibbons welcomes Kerrith Brown as British Judo Association chairman

At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Brown won bronze for Great Britain however four years later he was expelled from the Seoul Games after testing positive for the banned substance furosemide.

Gibbons said: "That was as a player and obviously he shouldn't be a judo player but that is not the job he has come in to do.

"The job he has come into is as British Judo chairman. At the moment he has got my full support.

"If I believe he is not doing a great job then that will change, but at the moment, in my eyes, he could be a very good chairman."

Brown enters to take over the chairmanship from the controversial Densign White. His leadership of the BJA was described as "rotten" by British judoka Winston Gordon.

During the Olympics, White had claimed that the British athletes were not committed enough, just two days before Gibbons won silver and Karina Bryant got the bronze.

Brown described his chairmanship as representing "a new era for British Judo".

Role model

Gibbons added: "It will be interesting to see what he has to offer. What happened at the Games I wasn't impressed by and I don't think the rest of the judo world were either.

"The job he has come into is as British Judo chairman. At the moment he has got my full support."
Gemma Gibbons

"But we have a new man coming in now and I think he will be very good at his job, and I think everyone should get behind him and support him and we'll see what can happen."

Following on from the summer's Games, Gibbons is still trying to get used to her new status as a sporting role model. This responsibility even took her to Rio de Janeiro, the 2016 Olympic host city, with the Prime Minister last month.

Gibbons continued: "Who gets to go to Rio for the weekend with David Cameron? Not many people.

"It was very strange with all the beaches and people on holiday - but at the same time I thought 'this is where I could be in four years' time going for gold'."