Nine stars to brighten the summer

"Since 1896, only 6,249 athletes have had the privilege of representing our country at an Olympic Games and so they're now part of something very special. They need to be aware of the magnitude of that.

"I want all the athletes to leave here with their heads held high, having given everything, because if they don't they will regret it for the rest of their lives. I want them to take memories that they will treasure and be able to tell their children about."

There's been an overwhelming feel, both here and at the squad's training camp in Paphos, that these are athletes who need to start appreciating how good they are and to feel that they will receive the most detailed, thorough and professional back-up of any of the 202 nations here simply because they are worth it.

Why would Bill Sweetenham, supposedly a hard, unsentimental Aussie coach, tell his swimmers in emotional fashion that he thinks they possess "a fighting spirit never witnessed before" from any previous British team?

Why would Max Jones, the UK Athletics performance director, write a letter to every one of his athletes telling them how great they are?

It's because in its new professional guise, British Olympic sport understands that an athlete with an inferiority complex is a beaten one. So now Sweetenham presides over a team that, according to veteran Olympian Karen Pickering, has changed completely from the unit that once felt so intimidated at poolside by their strutting Aussie and US opponents.

"Now we're making an impression on them for the first time," she reckoned.

It is just as Sweetenham writes to them in his letter of exhortation: "Attitude is everything and winning is the only considered option." Er, so much for the good Baron de Coubertin then.

"Well, people expect success now. It's not any longer about participating, it's about performance," said Clegg unashamedly.

So no British athlete in action within 48 hours of Friday's opening ceremony will be allowed to take part in the parade.

That might sound harsh, but standing around on a sweltering night for four hours is not conducive to creating Olympic champs.

Audley Harrison went to the opening ceremony in Sydney and noted: "Good job I didn't box the next day because I'd have been creaking like an old woman."

There's no room for passengers any more. The era of the British Olympic tourist is dying.

"We are in genuine medal contention in 16 of the 21 sports now," claimed Clegg. The overall tally of 28 medals won in Sydney was the best since the 34 won at the Chariots Of Fire Games in Paris in 1924 and, this time around, he would settle for 25, including six to nine golds.

Yet he rejected the idea that this lower prediction was down to the inferior quality and size of the British athletics team.

"You can't expect immediate and continuous improvement at every Olympics.

"Sometimes it's a case of what happens on the day and you need a bit of luck, like the way Jason Queally kicked us off so fantastically on day one in Sydney with a gold in the one kilometre time trial."

What he would give for a repeat on Saturday with judo player Craig Fallon or the duo of Peter Waterfield and Leon Taylor in the synchronised diving landing an opening day gong.

It's possible that Clegg is deliberately erring on the cautious side in his predictions following his experience at the Salt Lake City winter Games when, after a few blank days, he was so relieved to see his medal targets fulfilled in one afternoon that he ended up breaking down in tears at the bobsleigh track.

He doesn't need to pile that sort of pressure on himself or his team: these days, the expectations of a nation that demands a high return on its lottery-ticket buying represents pressure enough.

Will we get our money's worth? Well, in addition to the nine gold medal prospects outlined in these pages, you could name others who, if everything went perfectly, could triumph.

They include Fallon, the three-day event team, boxer Amir Khan, Darren Mew in the 100m breaststroke, men's cycling's sprint and pursuit teams or Kelly Holmes in the 1,500m.

This does not look like a team destined to belong to a sorry summer of sport, but you never know at a Games bound to be more mercilessly competitive than ever before.

Still, a good old fashioned red telephone box has been imported to stand proudly outside the GB headquarters in the Village.

Surely, the one thing we can trust is that by the end of the fortnight our Athens champions wouldn't all be able to fit in there together at the same time.