When we cast our minds back to Olympic Games of decades past, a wealth of British performances stand-out as iconic, some even achieving the embarrassingly over-used status of legendary.

Even the relatively spritely average age of the Brandwatch team allows for recollections of Linford and Sally covered in glory in Barcelona, of Steve Redgrave declaring never to go near a boat again or the heroic courage of Derek Redmond.

These athletes each evolved from world-class competitors to household names over the course of just one Olympiad. Will a Games hosted on home soil add to the likelihood of this repeating after London 2012?

We’ve been mining online conversations posted since the start of the Games about each of 500-plus Team GB competitors.

With online conversation almost wholly unsolicited, the beauty is that we can grab a peek at which Olympians are proving the most popular with those watching the Games without influencing the discussion ourselves.

We’ve displayed the 10 most talked-about Team GB members on social media since August 27 in the UK above.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his teenage armada of admirers, diver Tom Daley sits atop the leaderboard, despite a lack of success in London to date.

This chat has also been somewhat boosted by the abuse posted towards the diver by a Twitter troll.

Andy Murray and Bradley Wiggins, however, have taken a more conventional route to the summit, actually winning gold. It’s here that things get a little more interesting: the great unknowns.

Shooter Peter Wilson has incredibly been the subject of more social media activity that a vast number of seemingly more venerable personalities.

The marksman certainly benefitted, in social media terms at least, from winning gold at a stage when the nation was still fretting over the possibility of sporting humiliation in our own backyard, with a range of chat noting Team GB’s third win of the Games.

But still, are we seeing a new star burn brightly, with droves of young Britons amassing at the local gun club?

Rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning also adhered to the pattern of ‘firsts gaining the glory’.

The ladies won the first gold medal of the Games for Team GB, as well as the first victory by female British rowers at any Olympic regatta.

Is the secret to procuring online conversation pioneering achievement? Or could it be something as simple as having a heart-wrenching story?

Judoka Gemma Gibbons overcame the loss of her mother to win Olympic silver in a sport traditionally towards the bottom of the national interest. Both subjects stole the hearts and minds of social media users.

Whatever is driving this interest in previously-unknown athletes, online users at home are talking about the heroes of the Games.

They may not feature come Sports Personality of the Year time in December, but these competitors have not passed unnoticed on social media platforms.