After 16 days of adrenalin and delight, of contests fought and won, of teary triumphs and devastating defeat, the Games of London 2012 are abruptly at a close.
Ten thousand athletes have headed home, the crowds dispersed, the cauldron extinguished. In their place, along with the unforgettable memories, is a sadness too that something so fun is now consigned to the past. For the host nation, there was success beyond belief - 29 golds, 65 medals in total, won from Weymouth to Waltham Abbey and drawn from 19 disparate sports. Britons won medals standing and sitting, punching and kicking, swimming, biking and running and sometimes all three in succession.
Two and a half million people came to the Olympic Park; seven million saw some part of the Games in the flesh. Those denied access by bad luck or a creaking ticketing system watched on giant screens and small smartphones alike.
There were 70,000 volunteers who gave their time and cheery demeanour for free. Smiling members of the Armed Forces made bag-searches and security checks an easy pleasure.
As one wag said, these Olympics dragged millions of kids away from their computer games and motivated them instead to watch endless hours of sport on TV.
For now, with the memories still fresh, we are left with a series of vivid snapshots: Sir Wiggo on a gilded throne, seas of union jacks, Gamesmakers with giant foam fingers, and gold pillarboxes popping up around everyone's corner. We saw dancing NHS nurses, BMX racers framed against a blue east London sky, a blighted corner of the capital awash with wildflowers, Usain doing the Mobot and Mo doing Usain's archer.
Now it's all over, there is just one more impossible thing to ask for: can we do this every summer?
Text taken and adapted from Tom Fordyce´s www.bbc.co.uk
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