So everybody is happy that team GB secured more medals than Tokyo, finishing with 65 medals. Right?
Er, no actually.
From the nadir of Atlanta 1996, when Steve Redgrave and co secured a soliary gold medal, lottery funding has propelled Great Britain to the top table of world sport. In London in 2012, the number of gold medals (29) was the largest of all time.
Since then, however, the trend has been downward. GB won 27 in Rio, 22 in the beleaguered Tokyo games and just 14 in Paris. So, despite the impressive list below, cracks are emerging in the edifice.
Never has a country endured so many near misses at a games than this GB squad. Is this due to sheer bad luck, or is it poor judgement, a lack of ruthlessness or that the preparationand conditioning was a mere couple of fractions short of perfection?
It has been admitted that work has to be done ahead of Los Angeles in 2028. Yet the BOA and UK Sport face significant pressures as the next cycle begins.
UK Sport is facing a funding shortage and any help by the Government may not be as extensive as in the past. Rachel Reeves has put the country on notice that her budget at the end of October will contain tough decisions as she attempts to fill the £22billion black hole.
For all that sporting success helps the national mood and brakes our emotional seal, the cost of living crisis has not gone away. If voters were given the stark choice between continued Olympic success and reducing NHS waiting lists, the answer is almost certainly the latter.
It is highly likely that not so many are playing the lottery now, which adds to the mix of uncertainty that team GB faces. What the public wishes to see are poisitive results and silver being the new gold may be tolerated for only so long.
With Keely Hodgkinson only 26 in four years time, Emma Finucane 25, Sky Brown 20 and Tony Roberts also up for his second games, not all is doom and gloom. However, Tom Daley has departed the scene and Adam Peaty is unlikely to be far behind. British Olympic Sport is facing a period of potenetially difficult transition.
Indeed, my best memories of these games are provided by outstanding non British individuals. Novak Djokovic now has every right to become the GOAT, Noah Lyles last gasp capture of the 100metres was for the ages. Simone Biles goes on any short list, yet it was the final day which provided the single most outstanding performance.
Having taken bronze on the track in the 10,000m and silver in the 5,000m, Sifan Hassan found the strength and resilience to win the greatest ever women's marathon after a protracted battle with four other athletes. It was only in the final 2km that the race broke up with Hassan not making the decisive kick until the final 300m.
Sheer triumph for endurance and the human spirit. Which epiomises the Olympic Games.
ither male or female
