KEY POINTS:
From early yesterday Great Britain had good reasons to expect their greatest weekend of sport. They were confidently predicting up to nine gold medals - the greatest haul in British Olympic history - something unimaginable just a decade ago.
All of this suggests that when the world comes to London in four years it will find a sports nation that has learnt to believe in itself again. So why now?
It's because following Britain's successful bid to host the next Olympics they have been given the means to do the job.
The British effort has been underpinned by £265m of Lottery money, more than three times the investment in the team that won nine golds in Athens four years ago and £202m more than that spent on Sydney's 11 golds.
Along with this weekend's anticipated success - starting well with gold to Rebecca Adlington in the women's 800m freestyle - there is an even greater certainty of political self-congratulation.
Just a few days ago the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham, said: "Other countries like Australia now look to us as a country who got serious about sport and are now saying that they are in danger of falling behind team Great Britain in the medals table."
It perhaps needs to be remembered that Sydney alone has more Olympic-sized swimming pools than all of Britain, and that Australia has had an all-purpose sports centre in Canberra for more than 30 years.
Another huge question concerns whether the surge of government backing for elite sport will expand into a more serious effort to improve grassroots facilities.
This, though, is a question that probably should await recognition of what can happen when potentially world-class performers are given the right backing, which was the most haunting question in Atlanta in 1996 when Britain's only gold was won by Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.
At some point in this projected march to double figures in gold there will be a statement about the generosity of the Government's donations of Lottery money. The chances are it be will be drowned out by British cheers along with the question: "Why did it take so long?"
- INDEPEDENT
