In London, and the United Kingdom as a whole, the Olympics was everywhere. It permeated the public consciousness in a way I had never seen before: it even got people talking to each on the London Underground, a minor miracle in itself.
That, I must admit, took me a little by surprise. There was a percentage of the public that was slightly dreading the Games before the event – remember all those scare stories about venues not being finished, the weather being awful and London being overwhelmed by visitors?
Thankfully, it did not take long for that groundswell of appreciation, excitement and general goodwill – exemplified by the fantastic Games Makers – to build.
In fact, it was remarkable how quickly that momentum gathered, especially once the first gold was won on the Wednesday. I started that day at Eton Dorney, watching Heather Stanning and Helen Glover tear to victory in the women's pairs, and sharing in that strange mix of euphoria and relief that we had finally got off the mark.
I could not enjoy the moment too much as I had to get across town to the Olympic Park to host a lunch for some sponsors in the afternoon. Inevitably I got snarled up in traffic and ended up being rather late.
I made my way into the hall, offering profuse apologies in the process, and one of the clients on our table turned round and said: "I thought we were getting Britain's most successful Olympian – and we get you?"
It took me a second to realise what he meant, but of course in the time it had taken me to travel from Eton, Bradley Wiggins had won his gold in the time trial and become the Briton with the most Olympic medals in history. That journey into London had not only cost me my starter, but also my status in British sport!
Brad, now a very worthy winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, was one of the big sporting 'celebrities' – for want of a better word – of the Games, along with Sir Chris Hoy, Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis, but the great thing about Olympics is that it makes heroes out of the unlikeliest people, and from the unlikeliest sports.
Thanks to the Games, suddenly you could not move for experts in women's boxing, taekwondo, even shooting. On the first Thursday I ended up transfixed in front of the television watching Peter Wilson winning gold at Woolwich and I would not normally place shooting very high in my list of spectator sports. That is the Olympics for you.
Success is not without its problems. There is a whole generation of new superstars in British sport now – not so much people like Jess and Mo, who were pretty well known before the Games and had to cope with a lot of scrutiny in the build-up.
But athletes like Laura Trott, with her two cycling golds, Jade Jones after her win in the taekwondo and Greg Rutherford, who won the long jump against the odds, will have to deal with a level of attention and expectation they will have never experienced before.
That is a challenge: suddenly, they will find themselves fielding all sorts of requests from the media. Governing bodies will want them to be the face of their sport.
Offers of endorsements will come flooding in. They will need even more discipline and focus to prevent that from affecting the most important part of their work: their training.
Conversely, there will be some gold medallists from London who might not feel they are getting the recognition they deserve. In the past, if you won an Olympic gold you automatically became a household name, precisely because we did not win that many.
Now, with 29 golds in the bank, there will be some champions who get lost in the scrum. That in itself might be difficult to deal with. The motivation for those guys is to redouble their success in Rio: it is hard to ignore someone with two Olympic gold medals.
That is one of the reasons I do not have many concerns over Team GB's chances in 2016. Many of those athletes who were winning gold in London should still be at their peak in four years, injuries permitting.
Then there are all those who were identified by programmes set up for London but ended up just missing out on selection – talented, hungry youngsters who should form the mainstay of the squad for Rio.
There is bound to be another group of athletes who come from nowhere, sportsmen and women inspired by London and who are determined to get a piece of the action in Rio.
You might call it the Helen Glover effect: Helen was identified by the Sporting Giants programme I help to run, aimed at finding sportswomen over 5ft 11in who have the desire to make it as a professional. She was signed up in 2008 and is now the proud owner of an Olympic gold medal.
My bigger concern centres on the 2020 Games, wherever they may be. Then, many of our biggest names from last summer will have retired and British sport will be faced by a daunting question: have we produced a new wave of sportsmen and women who can produce on the biggest stage?
If the answer is yes, then the triumph of London 2012 will truly be complete.
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