Apart from the odd, pale-and-pot bellied British tourist, it is hard to find anything remotely spectral among the perfectly tanned and tuned bodies on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. But if any of the locals could be said to embody the ghost of the Olympic future it is probably Patricia Lessa, a wannabe competitor in a yet-to-be Olympic sport in the gonna-be host city.

Lessa represents Brazil in foot-volley, which – as the name suggests – mixes the headers and volleys of football with the cross-net rallies of volleyball. This game of remarkable skill, which originated on Rio de Janeiro's beaches, has an outside chance of being added as a new event when the city stages the next Games in 2016.

So it has been with even more than usual interest that the 28-year-old has watched the first few days of the London Olympics and her view so far is that it has been a storming success.

"The opening ceremony was amazing. Even though I'm Brazilian, I don't think Rio can match that," she gushed in a break between games. "The organisation and the infrastructure have been great. Everything works perfectly. This has confirmed my image of London as an organised, polite and hospitable place."

Such a complimentary assessment jars with much of the pre-Olympic build-up in Brazil's media, which focused on the security fiasco and transport delays. But Lessa's views are in keeping with the positive tone of much of the coverage and public opinion since the Games began.

It was never going to be hard for London to draw the attention of a sports-mad, festival-loving country like Brazil, but the upbeat mood has no doubt been helped by this country's best ever start to an Olympics.

On the first day, Brazil picked up three medals, which – as the Veja newspaper pointed out – was three more than the hosts.

Among the haul was a first-ever gold for Brazil in the women's judo. The winner, Sarah Menezes, was little known before London, but she is now a national hero and many newspapers have reported on the way she defied her parents to continue in a sport that they warned her was "only for boys".

Menezes said she hoped her medal would be a breakthrough for Brazilian women in her sport. "It's really very, very important because it took many years to happen," she said. "We've stopped doubting ourselves and now we know we can beat anyone, and that's the key."

It is tempting to read such triumphs as a symbol of a changing world order in which women and emerging economies like Brazil and China are now taking on and beating the male, Anglo-Saxon establishment that dominated the 20th century.

Certainly, there are elements of this in some of the Brazilian commentary. Newspapers here have noted that as well as being the first Games in which every country is represented by women athletes, London has also seen some very ostentatious spending by the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

In its Olympic special edition, Folha de São Paulo noted that in contrast to the economic crisis affecting Europe, Brazil has spent £7m in London on an exhibition centre for the Rio Olympics, Russia has stumped up more than £15m on a ice-rink and 4D display promoting the 2014 Winter Olympics, which it will host in Sochi, while Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal was a major financial backer of the £22m Orbit Olympic Tower. Many have also observed that London does not compare to the extravagance and grandeur of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

But, rather than schadenfreude towards a miserable Old World, most commentators and spectators like Lessa seem to feel a mixture of sympathy, respect and even admiration for London – emotions that appear to have been amplified by Danny Boyle's opening ceremony. Far from the pomp of Britain's past or the misery of the current recession, several Brazilian newspaper commentators noted the humour, self-deprecation and fun of Boyle's spectacle.

It also sparked a minor controversy. While the NHS segment touched on Conservative nerves in the UK and the lesbian kiss hit on sensitivities in Saudi Arabia and the US, the main political fall-out in Brazil was triggered by the appearance of Amazon rainforest campaigner, Marina Silva as an Olympic flag bearer. As an opponent of the president Dilma Rousseff – who was sitting in the audience – her prominent role prompted the speaker of Brazil's parliament, to warn the Olympic Committee to "be more careful".

But that is relatively small beer compared to the rough-and-tumble of Brazilian politics. It may also help to counter the impression of the UK as a nation that is straightlaced, overly-formal and so obsessed with good appearances that it is easily duped.

This image is encapsulated by a common expression, "just for the English to see" that dates back to the end of the 19th century, when British ships were supposed to be enforcing a ban on the slave trade off the coasts of Brazil, then the biggest human trafficker in the world. Locals connived to continue this lucrative business by putting on a show whenever inspectors from the Royal Navy vessels came ashore. "Só para inglês ver" , has now become synonymous with anything done for the sake of appearances.

The 2012 Games have gone far enough beyond that for many Cariocas (Rio residents) to express the same doubts and insecurities that many Londoners felt after the spectacle of the Beijing Olympics.

"It's going to be hard for us to match London," said Julia de Morae, a student, who was listening to a street band on the Leblon beach front. "Just wait until the Olympics comes here. The subway system will be a disaster."