Tapping out his column for the Straits Times yesterday afternoon, Rohit Brijnath was busy confronting the big picture. “The geography of sport is altering,” he said. “We have a Panamanian winning the long jump, a Mongolian won a judo gold, India has its first individual gold ever. It’s not so much a case of America declining as of the rest of the world catching up.”

The smaller picture, the story of the Games in Singapore, was all about table tennis. Singapore won the silver medal in the team event, their first since Tan Howe Liang won a silver medal for weightlifting in 1960. The country had also been stirred by the efforts of Tao Li, a diminutive butterfly specialist, who swam two personal bests to reach the final of the 100m. She finished fifth, but the mere fact that this woman from Singapore who stands but 5ft 3in had made a swimming final was a cause of wonder.

There were similar celebrations in the newspapers of Bangladesh for Doli Akhter, who came eighth in her heat of the 50m freestyle, after a tight battle for seventh place with a swimmer from the Maldives. Never mind, for she was the first Bangladeshi to compete in three Games.

A more successful multiple Olympian became the story of the Games in Argentina. Juan Curuchet, 43, was cycling in his sixth Olympics. His previous best was a seventh place finish in Sydney, but this time, with his partner in the men’s Madison, he won gold, Argentina’s first in cycling. The story has become a parable of the importance of perseverance for Argentina’s younger athletes.

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New Zealand also had a story of perseverance. Mahe Drysdale, a three times world champion and the one athlete the nation could count on for a gold medal, became violently sick forty-eight hours before the single skulls final.

Finishing with a bronze, after a race in which he could recall nothing of the last 100m, he collapsed in his boat and began to vomit. He had to be carried off in a stretcher and carried to the medal ceremony. In a poll, New Zealanders voted his agonised performance the most memorable moment of the Games.

Another last minute mishap created the story of the Games for Denmark. Shortly before their final race, in which they needed only to come sixth to win gold, the Danish 49er crew suffered a broken mast. Towed back into harbour, they found that the Croatian team were not planning to race and asked to borrow their boat. The race began without them, at 5.30pm, as they were sailing back to the start.

They needed to make the start line within four minutes, or be disqualified. They crossed it with three seconds to spare aboard the Croatian boat and entered a rough race, in which their rivals, the Austrians, lost their mast, and the Brazilians tore their mainsail. Seventh place was enough to secure gold.

The crew that finished first in that final race, the Spanish, would have won gold if the Danes had not taken part. They protested that a team could not race in another team’s boat. A hearing began after the race in Qingdao harbour on Sunday evening. The following day at noon, a jury decided that boat borrowing was permitted. The president of the Spanish Olympic Committee then appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).. The Italians, who would win bronze if the Danes were disqualified, appealed too. Both appeals were finally thrown out on Saturday afternoon.

While the Danes held onto their gold, in Sweden, a nation watched as an athlete threw away his bronze whilst standing on the medal podium. Ara Abrahamian felt he had been denied his rightful shot at gold by an incorrect judging decision in the semi-final, but had been unable to appeal. He had lost a semi-final in Athens thanks to another disputed refereeing decision; this time around after the bronze had been hung around his neck, he stepped down from the podium, removed the medal and tossed it onto the floor.

For this act, the IOC stripped him of his bronze and banned him for life. CAS later ruled that he ought to have been able to appeal. “He was misjudged but you can’t change it afterwards,” said Richard Akesson, of the Swedish daily Sydensvenska Dagbladet. “In Sweden he is now a hero.”

Netherlands: Maarten van der Weijden: diagnosed with leukaemia in 2001, given the all clear in 2003, won gold in the 10km open water race South Africa: Natalie De Toit, the first amputee to compete in an Olympic Games, finished sixteenth. Her efforts were said to shame those of the countries highest-ranking athletes who were felt to have underperformed.

Croatia: High jumper Blanka Vlasic arrived at the Games after 34 consecutive victories. She jumped 2.05m in the final on Saturday but not at her first attempt. Cue celebrations in Belgium, whose own Tia Hellebaut cleared the same height first time to take gold.

Italy: Josefa Idem, 44, a mother of two, at her seventh Games, misses gold by four thousandths of a second in the 500m kayak race Indonesia: Maria Yulianti is a surprise winner in the women’s singles in badminton. Primastuti Hundayani of The Jakarta Post, told The Times: “It was unexpected, it happened a day before the celebration of our independence day. It was like a birthday present for the country.” Brazil: Maurren Maggi won an unexpected gold in the long jump, capping a Games in which Brazil’s women performed far better than Brazil’s men.

Thailand: Somjit Jongjohor wins a surprise boxing gold Japan: Kosuke Kitajima wins two gold medals in breast stroke with two world records. Chinese jeering at Japanese athletes is also noted with anger in the Japanese press.

Germany: Matthias Steiner won the men’s +105kg weightlifting gold 13 months after the death of his wife Susann, in a car accident.

Australia: Steve Hooker won the pole vault final, clearing each of the four heights with his third and final attempt, to win Australia’s first field gold for sixty years. Australia’s Matthew Mitcham also produced an upset in the 10m diving, winning gold after the highest scoring dive in Olympic history.

Poland: Michael Jelinski, a diabetic, has 5-7 injections per day on his way to gold as part of Poland’s world beating rowing foursome. Polish journalists compare him to Steve Redgrave.

Israel: Shahar Tzuberi, won a surprise bronze medal in windsurfing Belarus: Andrey Mikhnevich won bronze in the shot put. His wife, Natallia, went one better, winning a silver in the women’s event.