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So far in London, that's been sheathed in a velvet glove, but the IOC has been happy to wave the iron fist in the past and remind an organising committee who the senior partner is: it's their games, London are the hosts, and it's all chugging along nicely.

It must be a blessed relief to the IOC to have a relatively straightforward games to manage for a change, where the principal squabbles are over details like where the boxing venue should be, and does the suggestion of taking it to Wembley mean athletes will have too far to travel? If that's the worst London can chuck at them, they'll be singing, "easy, easy!" from the back of the tour coach.

proved to be, in the end, a great games for the IOC, but its delivery was fraught with delicate political negotiations, challenges over human rights issues, and the necessity of getting used to the complex and bureaucratic Chinese way of doing things.

of course, was ulcer-inducing. The IOC's coordination commission chairman Denis Oswald speaks from experience when he remarks that at least in London, "we know we will have a stadium." At times that was a serious question in the Greek capital, where the organisers were put on, "amber warning," by former IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch. No such embarrassments for the London 2012 Organising Committe (LOCOG), just the warm glow that comes from fulsome praise.

I was struck by one remark from Oswald at the closing media conference. He said LOCOG and the games were not affected by the current financial crisis. That does seem to be true, and it's extraordinary. LOCOG's flat out chase for sponsors from the outset now looks not only prescient, but brilliant, perhaps a little fortunate, but I doubt that chief executive Paul Deighton believes in luck too strongly.

To be £500m pounds to the good before the world's markets got credit crunched has been vital in shoring-up confidence, and the rate of progress on the Olympic Park, pressing on, hitting targets, suggests the Olympic Delivery Authority is living up to the much coined phrase, "not a day to waste".

When pressed privately, Gilbert Felli, the IOC's shrewd executive director told me they had no need to issue anything even vaguely amounting to a gentle reminder to speed up the rate of progress. However he did say there were some significant deadlines in the coming months, particularly in respect of completing buildings and venues in time for them to be properly tested ahead of the games.

Even so I didn't detect a bead of sweat on his Swiss brow, or any fear behind the smile. At this stage, the London Olympics is no no It may have its detractors, but those who know say it's on time and on budget, and we might just have to get used to that fact.