Come fourth and multiply

So Beijing is over.

And Team GB came fourth. Unbelievable. 19 Gold medals. Count them. Isn't it remarkable how the achievement of others can make you feel great? I mean, we are not a great Olympic nation. In 1996 we had one solitary Gold Medal. In 1948, the last time London hosted the games, we had three. We have usually averaged about four or five. Use this fantastic page to see how we did (or how your country did, if you're not British) each Olympic year. The last couple of games have been a marked improvement. And suddenly this year has taken us all by storm.

And success leaves us feeling - well, after one of the wettest summers on record, it has brought a bit of sunshine to us.

And a bit of sporting judgementalism?

The England football team continues to be, er, hit and miss. So they get it in the neck for not being as good as the cyclists. The track & field guys fail to finish the relay, and are critiqued for not being in the same league as the swimmers. One near miss said to an interviewer after not getting a medal, "I don't mind - I'm an Olympian!" - but he is in for a rude awakening when he gets home. We don't want Olympians. We want Gold Medal winning Olympians.

Oh well.

I find myself to be eagerly looking forwards to the 2012 games. After the monumentalism of Beijing, I even enjoyed the "show in the corner" that the London organisers put on. It had an energy and a life to it that almost nothing I saw in either ceremony in Beijing had -

Almost nothing. If you didn't see the "Memory Tower" in the closing ceremony, try & find it on YouTube. This is the kind of thing that Hollywood would have to do with CGI. And the Chinese did it with real people. Live. Completely amazing.

Nearly as amazing as 19 golds for Team GB.