Plainly, most of the 10,000 athletes who converge on the Games come to make up the numbers. Most have personal bests that put them nowhere near a podium. For them there will be no Sports Illustrated cover shot, no whirl of post-victory sponsor parties and interviews.

The day after my encounter with Page, a man on the excellent new metro Line 4 from Barra, site of the main Olympic Park, into Rio, was showing other travellers pictures of him carrying the Olympic torch. He was still wearing his gold and white shirt from his brush with the flame, which, unusually, has been virtually invisible at these Games (presumably it would have cost too much to run a gas pipe up to the Christ the Redeemer statue). You could see his friends and family growing a little weary of his excessive pride. But, contrary to many reports, the train was packed with Brazilian spectators, who have made more noise in the second week than they did in the first.