A long time has passed since the first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC. Then, only free men who could speak Greek could compete. Then, too, the number of events was far smaller but the structure of the Games was already in place.

In Beijing sportsmen and women from all over the world competed in no less than 36 different sports, from archery to the triathlon, fencing to softball. And nobody needs to be told what an experience Beijing was. What the Chinese determined to achieve - from the point of view of organisation and administration, from their domination of the gold medals, but not the accumulated number of gold, silver and bronze, which went to the Americans, to the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies - they succeeded in accomplishing. Only a dullard will deny them so much.

Each individual watching the Games has his own favourite sport, be it athletics or aquatics, gymnastics or weightlifting. There were some achievements, however, that transcended all else: the eight gold medals won by Michael Phelps (and seven new world records, not to mention a one million dollar bonus from his swimsuit sponsor; how will success treat this young man or, rather, how will he deal with it?) - somebody described him as having the body of a dolphin. We know what that meant.

Then there was the Jamaican Usian Bolt who dominated the sprint events with three golds, his easy 100 metres and his breathtaking 200 metres in particular; Christine Ohuruogo's magnificent 400 metres; the non-gold performance of the youngest Olympian ever, Tom Daley who reached the final with an armstand back triple somersault with tuck (how do they invent these dives? More important, how do they execute them?); the Chinese gymnasts and the Russian water figure dancers; the Jamaican sprinters, Ethiopian and Kenyan longer distance track heroes - and heroines.

Behind it all, of course, was sheer hard work and iron wills. And, let us not ignore this, funding. There is no doubt that there exists a direct link between this and the final tally of medals won. Britain proved this beyond all possible doubt, collecting 19 times more gold medals than it did in 1996. Where do we stand in this? Malta's problem is not just money but the availability of professional coaches who can start our kids off at an early age, for which, naturally, we need serious funding.

It is not churlish to remark, even as we praise China for the magnificent Games it laid on, the best ever, some were claiming, that running like two sores throughout the Beijing Games were the Russian invasion of Georgia, where Russian troops are still dug in, and arbitrary arrests, imprisonment or expulsion of any demonstrator who took part in any Free Tibet protest, or any demonstration for that matter. The most recent was of a British woman who was jailed for 10 days without even getting a glimpse of a Chinese court. China remains an undemocratic country, persecuting religious minorities and ever-watchful for political dissent threatening the supremacy of one-party communist rule.

Now it is London's turn. The city's mayor Boris Johnson - or cheeky Boris as he is sometimes referred to - was defiantly optimistic that London would rise to the occasion. So there, at the spectacular closing ceremony, was a London bus, which opened up to reveal David Beckham.

And there was also Gordon Brown, whom Sky News, pettily, would not leave alone even on this big day for Britain.