For some of those in Team GB, these Games can only be looked at with an eye to four years in the future. The Athens Games four years ago failed to live up to Sydney, Atlanta in 1996 fell well short of Barcelona, while London does not want to be remembered as a poor relation to Beijing.

Having stared up at a string of hulking world-class and overwhelmingly new venues, the latest thing to take the collective breath away has been the standard of the Olympic Village. “Outstanding - probably the best Olympic Village ever,” Simon Clegg, Team GB’s chef de mission, said. “It raises the bar for future organising committees.

“We’ve gone from 2-3 storey building to 6-9 storeys got a lot more people in single rooms. There’s lots of open space between the buildings, which gives them a really good feel. There are some stunning aspects, including the water features, the mature trees and the statues they have got in there.”

And if “outstanding” was Clegg’s view of the Village, he came up with another superlative to describe the venues. “Inspirational,” he said. “You cannot help but be impressed.” But while claiming that Beijing’s budget would far exceed London's, Lord Moynihan, the BOA chairman, said: “They’ve set a challenge for us in London, no question about it. They’ve set a tough task to meet the quality of the stadia in 2012.”

The British presence in the Olympic Village increased on Tuesday from 50 athletes to 142, someway short of half the team of 313 that will compete at these Games - a rise of 15 per cent on the number that took part in Athens.

The smog and haze that on Monday had given Beijing an end-of-the-world feel, cleared to give the city the blue sky that organisers had been praying for. Rain could threaten Friday’s opening ceremony, but rain is needed to keep the smog at bay.

Elsewhere, the weather was proving agreeable too. The threat of a typhoon engulfing the GB holding camp in Macau – it is also a risk to the equestrian events in Hong Kong - has dissipated, while a welcome breeze has been blowing at Qingdao, where the sailing events will be held.

“It has been windy in Macau,” Clegg said. “It is expected to rise to a level 3 (typhoon signal) later today, but that is still well short of the level 8 that would lead to closing down that facility.

“I was down at Qingdao at the beginning of the week and there was quite a lot of wind. I don’t have any updates at the moment. The team have been in Qingdao for four weeks and have gone to Shanghai for 3-4 days relaxation. Wind there would obviously be helpful to our chances.”