Dear fellow countrymen,
Well done. Kudos to every single one of you. I knew we had it in us to be united as a proper United Kingdom for the first time, pretty much, ever and get behind the Olympics, Team GB and the sense of occasion of being involved in something so very, very special. You were cynical and wanted to avoid this at first, and even wanted this to spectacularly fail - but were somehow won over by the uniting and coming together that sport does.
There were many of you so disgruntled over whether the city would hold that many tourists and visitors coming to visit during the games what with London being overcrowded already. On the contrary, it somehow made it easier getting around town. We were so enthused by the Greatest Show On Earth coming to our city for the third time that ticket sales were higher for these games than for any other, ever. We took it to our hearts in so many ways.
And what a couple of weeks they were. It took seven years of planning and they were all over in what seemed like ten seconds.
For all the talk of a legacy and inspiring a generation, it remains to be seen whether it can do just that. It's not something that can be seen immediately. That takes time. But in order for the seeds to take root, we need to put them in place. Please let us not waste this precious opportunity to produce more Jessica Ennis's and More Mo Farah's. The double-gold medal winner went to the same school as I did - he was in the year above me and I actually remember playing football with him a number of times, as well as having the same PE teacher. I remember him making a Facebook post stating that 'for all the people that moan about PE, people like Mo started off somewhere and a teacher pointing him in the direction of an athletics club to harness their talents, so think about that next time you write a fake sick note..'
While it might be true that we only sing when we're winning, and by God we were, what with 29 Gold Medals won for our Team GB, the real winners of London 2012 were the city and its inhabitants. We welcomed the world in the best way we could and went above and beyond, like the way a hotel would treat a VIP guest or something. Right from Danny Boyle's opening ceremony to Anthony Joshua's and Team GB's last gold medal. (The lesser said about the Closing Ceremony the better. I have a theory that it was intentionally a comparatively poor showing to switch people back to cynic mode, just to return normality to proceedings.)
That moreover, made us get looked at by the rest of the world in such a positive light, with fond memories that will last a lifetime. What an honour, what a privilege. And that is just a small demonstration of just why London is the greatest city in the world - our tolerance and welcoming nature of all creeds and races is what makes us so open in the first instance, which is why we were the perfect choice to host these games.
BBC Commentator Hazel Irvine said that the power of sport in uniting people should never be underestimated, but that she never thought it could be this powerful.
So once again, I say well done Britain, for we are all Team GB. In our thousands and in our millions.
Yours sincerely,
Yousif Nur - a proud Brit and supporter of Team GB.