After some 15,000 elite athletes have competed in several hundred events at 20 or so state-of-the-art venues across 16 days, you would expect to be hard pressed to narrow down the highlights to a couple of dozen, however, after the Games of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing, it wasn't that hard after all.
Ask just about anyone with even a passing interest in the Summer Olympics of 2008 to nominate his or her most memorable moments and chances are two names will come to the fore: Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
Ask an Australian, and he or she will more than likely add Matthew Mitcham, Steve Hooker and/or Stephanie Rice - although the field is a bit more even.
Whichever way you judge these things, it's Bolt by the length of the straight, and his astonishing, audacious, world-record-breaking 100 metres victory will be a lifetime memory for all who witnessed it.
But there was so much more to what was a true smorgasbord of international sporting excellence, featuring the highest of (natural) highs, in the Chinese capital.
So, in an effort to pay some sort of tribute to the best of the best and their outstanding achievements, here are two lists, one covering Australian athletes and one for the rest of the world.
Just to be clear, we have decided to list memorable moments rather than overall achievements, so Phelps winning eight gold medals, China dominating the medal count like never before and the US men's basketball team sending the locals into a frenzy whenever they poked their heads out in public - amongst others - have been left for a different list.
International:
1. Usain Bolt turning on afterburners not even he knew he had, then shutting down early - partly to revel in the moment, partly to check that he could actually stop - and leaving the pretenders to the crown of the world's fastest human in his wake in the 100 metres. Pure sport, pure brilliance, pure enjoyment.
2. Michael Phelps lifting himself out of the pool in the final half-stroke to snatch the 100m butterfly - a moment that deserves to be frozen in time.
3. Jason Lezak powering home over the French to seal the 4x100 freestyle relay, and the reaction of Phelps standing behind the blocks, as his dream was kept alive by his team-mates.
4. Liu Xiang pulling out of the hurdles, leaving an entire nation stunned, many in tears.
5. The dramatic, gymnastic lighting of the cauldron providing a fitting climax to a stunning Opening Ceremony, the likes of which we will likely never see again.
6. Bolt getting it all absolutely right (again) to take out the 200 metres and set another stunning world record.
7. The American men's volleyball team winning gold less than two weeks after coach Hugh McCutcheon's father-in-law was killed by a disturbed man at the start of the Games.
8. American David Neville diving across the finish line head first to claim bronze in the 400 metres, the epitome of desperation and 'leaving it all on the track'.
9. The debut of BMX. Many of us wondered what it was all about, but there were plenty of Olympic (and cycling) officials patting themselves on the back afterwards.
10. German weightlifter Matthias Steiner holding his gold medal in one hand and a photo of his wife, who had been killed in a car accident less than 12 months earlier, in the other.
Australian:
1. Matthew Mitcham's perfect final dive, which also denied the Chinese a sweep of diving gold, epitomising the adage 'cometh the moment, cometh the man'.
2. Steve Hooker capping a string of edge-of-the-seat, third-attempt clearances with the ultimate combination of speed, strength, acrobatics, skill, timing, willpower, poise, concentration, strength of mind … and holding your breath.
3. Anna Meares taking everything her Chinese opponent could throw at her to win the semi of the women's sprint, going on to claim the silver medal just seven months after a sickening crash that went within millimetres of making her a quadriplegic … and all that after the event in which she had won gold at the Athens Games, the 500m time trial, was dumped from the Olympic program. Talk about fighting back from adversity.
4. Sally McLellan, not satisfied with just making the final of the hurdles, pulling it out when she needed to with the race of her life, then waiting for agonising minutes while the photo was examined, then leaping a metre into the air as if auditioning for a car commercial when her 'number' went into the frame for silver.
5. Ken Wallace powering to the finish line with exquisite timing - twice - then telling the assembled media 'I'll race you to the door'!
6. Stephanie Rice's 400 IM. Forget the circus, this was world-class swimming by a very talented and very committed young lady.
7. Triathlete Emma Snowsill fulfilling her Olympic destiny four years after missing selection for Athens.
8. Grant Hackett taking us on a roller-coaster of emotion for 15 minutes, and showing his signature grace when accepting his silver medal.
9. Melissa Wu and Briony Cole claiming silver with a copybook final dive.
10. Robin Bell, who also lifted superbly when it really counted, putting in a scintillating final run in the canoe slalom to claim a well-deserved bronze medal.
Having concentrated on the Australians for nearly three weeks, it's hard to stop at 10, so here are 10 more who deserve 'honourable mentions':
1. Patrick Mills - announced himself as an international basketball star at 19;
2. Jared Tallent - never again to be the forgotten man of Australian men's race walking;
3. Drew Ginn and Duncan Free - rowing royalty;
4. Scott Brennan and David Crawshay - gold-medal guts;
5. The softball team - finished their four-Olympic run with another bronze after an amazing, drawn-out, extra innings semi-final against Japan;
6. Bronte Barratt, Linda McKenzie, Kylie Palmer and Stephanie Rice - 4x200m freestyle relay gold in world-record time;
7. Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper, Emily Seebohm and Libby Trickett - 4x100m medley relay gold in world-record time;
8. Malcolm Page and Nathan Wilmot and Tessa Parkinson and Elise Rechichi - twin 470 class sailing gold, just like Sydney;
9. The Opals - Australia's best value-for-money national team;
10. The women's water polo team - not too far behind the Opals, either in commitment or entertainment value.