The Paris Games concluded with Tom Cruise dropping into the Stade de France from its roof and an Olympic medal haul for Great Britain that was bettered only by the sporting superpowers of the USA and China after 19 days of sublime athleticism.
As the Olympic baton was handed to Los Angeles 2028 at a spectacular closing ceremony that included a dash of Hollywood flare, Andy Anson, the chief executive of the British Olympic Association, admitted to frustration that a relative scarcity of gold medals had left Team GB at seventh on the official medal table, its lowest position since Athens in 2004.
