Unofficial sport-by-sport guide - Medal calendar - Full results - The Big 4 - Team sports
AT LAST, the wait is almost over. In just a few hours, the Games of the XXX Olympiad - that is London 2012 to you and me - will officially begin with the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.
It has indeed seemed like a long seven years since that euphoric moment on 6 July 2005 when International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge announced the London bid had won.
In the meantime, the gap has been filled by all sorts of events and landmarks ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Perhaps the best thing to happen in the build-up was the Olympic torch relay which has drawn huge crowds around the country even when the British summer weather was at its worst.
Yes, it might have been dragged out over two and a half months, and at times undoubtedly had too much exposure on the news.
But, the length of the relay at least ensured the promise that it would pass within 10 miles of 95% of the population seemed to be kept.
Other events such as the Hackney Weekend and the World Shakespeare Festival were loosely tied into the Olympics courtesy of the all-encompassing London Festival.
However, so much has been going on that the result has been an unavoidable mass blare, which has been off-putting for some.
Admittedly, the London 2012 organisers LOCOG have given plenty of ammunition to the firmest detractors of the Olympics.
For a start, the positioning of anti-aircraft missiles on the top of residential blocks of flats near the Olympic Stadium is more than slightly disconcerting.
Worse still has been the rather fascist approach of LOGOC towards the protection of its brand and sponsors - as, even in our twisted capitalist existence, some of the methods have seemed rather extreme.
More recently, of course, there has been what could only be described as the G4S security fiasco. In fairness to LOCOG on that front, the firm's own boast of it being the "biggest security company in the world" should have inspired some sort of confidence.
However, what transpired was the dawning realisation just weeks before the Games that the private security firm was unable to fulfil their obligation to cover all the events.
Subsequently, additional police were pulled off the beat and and even army personnel were drafted in. Meanwhile G4S chief executive Nick Buckles was hauled up in front of Parliament, and humiliated.
It was not just the private sector causing bother, though. On the eve of the Games, the Public and Commercial Services union - of which I am a member - rather ridiculously considered organising a strike among Borders Agency staff.
This was despite a woeful lack of public support and, thankfully, the union eventually saw sense, calling off the industrial action on Wednesday.
All of these stories have combined to make the road to London a rocky one and matters were little helped by US presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday.
Mr Romney said: "The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging."
But Prime Minister David Cameron was quick to rebuke the White House hopeful, stating: "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world.
"Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”
That line was seemingly a reference to the Winter Olympics in 2002 which were organised by Mr Romney in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Similarly, London mayor Boris Johnson spoke at a Hyde Park concert which marked the end of the torch relay.
"There's guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know if we are ready," he bellowed, prompting jeers from some of the 60,000-strong crowd. "Are we ready? Yes we are!"
At least, Mr Romney avoided a monumental gaffe such as getting North Korea and South Korea mixed up.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the Olympic organisers at Hampden Park in Glasgow who introduced the North Korean footballers on the big screen alongside the South Korean flag.
Unsurprisingly, given that the two countries are still officially in a state of war, the North Koreans stormed off the pitch and only ended up playing - and winning - the match after a one-hour delay and a repetition of the pre-match formalities.
It truly could have been a scene from Twenty Twelve, the BBC's superb parody of the Olympic organisers' preparations.
Indeed, the omnipresence of the Olympics on the BBC has been another undoubted feature of the build-up to the Games.
There has been a trio of sports documentaries on Jamaican sprinter Usian Bolt, and Britons Victoria Pendleton and Tom Daley - the latter
And, in addition to Twenty Twelve, the comedy department produced an on-form special of Absolutely Fabulous and a live appearance of the torch relay in soap EastEnders.
Now, not everything which the BBC has done has won my approval.
The attempt to predict Team GB's place in the medal table seems a rather unhelpful exercise, only adding further pressure onto the home athletes.
But, while the wall-to-wall coverage during the Games will undoubtedly irk a sizeable proportion of licence fee payers, in my view the corporation is simply giving due prominence to an event which will go down in British history, in one way or another.
Indeed, maybe the only thing more tiresome than the slow-burning build-up has been the unfortunate British propensity to have a moan about... well, anything really.
It really is time to stop grumping and instead sit back and enjoy the greatest show on earth.
For, now it is time for the memories to be made as the visions of the stadium designers and artistic directors are superseded by the men and women who matter most - the athletes.
After all, the Olympics motto remains 'Citius, Altius, Fortius!' Who, indeed, will be the fastest? Who will go the highest? And who will be the strongest?
We're about to find out... let the Games begin!
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