大象传媒

National Stadium, Beijing

With one spontaneous gesture, a nervous tic really, Boris Johnson signalled exactly : don't even try.

The London mayor's comedy salute as he set foot on the red carpet at the Bird's Nest was a late bid for my moment of the Games.

It encapsulated what many British observers here have felt throughout these Games: we're all pretty blown away by the show the Chinese have put on, and , but we'll muddle through in 2012, and we'll try to put a smile on your face while we do it.

And did I really see him shout "I want the flag!" to Olympic impresario Jacques Rogge before it was his turn to do the ceremonial swirling bit? If so, I apologise for voting for Ken: you are a legend, even if you don't know what to do with your hands.

So that's that then. They are sweeping up around me after I can remember, and there really is no getting away from it - we are the next hosts of the summer Olympics. Gulp.

At some time, in some place, there is always a story.

As the Olympic action wound down on Sunday it was at the National Indoor Stadium, where the had just lost to France in the men's final.

.

It was still their best Olympic performance since 1956 (when they won a triple-jump silver).

I've been watching sport since my dad first dragged me along to watch Leicester City against Fulham in 1974 and if - in the intervening 34 years - I've experienced a more than Saturday in the Taekwondo Hall in Beijing then it's temporarily escaped my memory.

I'm not often lost for words, but I was beginning to reach the bottom of the box by the time we left 12 hours after we'd arrived.

If the hour's confusion that surrounded unprecedented reinstatement wasn't enough, we then had Cuban heavyweight off the floor after being disqualified and kicking the referee in the head.

It seems a little unfair when you had 10,708 athletes competing for 958 medals in 28 different sports, but the Beijing Olympics will mainly be remembered for the deeds of just two young men - a 22-year-old sprinter from , Jamaica and a 23-year-old swimmer from , USA.

In the space of a few weeks here in China, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps transformed themselves from notable names within their own sports into global sporting superstars.

One was fuelled by chicken nuggets and yams, the other by , but on track and in water, they each made the impossible seem easy.

In the same way as Mexico City is remembered for Bob Beamon and Munich for Lasse Viren, the athletics in Beijing will be remembered for Usain Bolt.

These were Usain's Games, and beyond that, Jamaica's.

Nothing could ever top what he did in the 100m, 200m and the relay. Even the other athletes only seemed to want to talk about him.

You need superheroes. You need stars that everyone round the world knows, not just within athletics.